


thanks for the memories

by hookedonsunshine



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien is kinda sad, F/F, F/M, Fake Dating, Friendship, IDENTITY SHENANIGANS, Marinette is on a MISSION, Past Ladybug/Luka, Some past Queen Bee/Ladybug, also she's hench af, bad!gabriel, but like, different superheroes, everyone has powers, everyone is a hero pretty much, except marinette, is a superhero au, its important guys, like hes just kind of mean, of a superhero show, on that note, or a villain, real dating, rose and juleka are so in love, shall update as more tags become relevant, she's still the coolest tho, sorry - Freeform, sorry marinette, villain!chat noir
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-27
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-05-29 16:04:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15076730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hookedonsunshine/pseuds/hookedonsunshine
Summary: As long as there have been humans, there have been superheroes.You may know people who have always been a little more in touch with the world around them. Some people have a green thumb, perfect pitch, a knack for mental maths. For some people, it goes further than this. Once in a blue moon, a teenager may present with a Miraculous, a gift for influencing themselves, others, or their environment, in fantastic and mesmerising ways.A user may choose to train in the Miraculous Force, or they may choose to ignore it. And occasionally, they may go rogue.However, to be a hero, you must train in the Force. To enter the Force, you must be Miraculous.Marinette Dupain-Cheng most definitely is not Miraculous. And yet, somehow, Ladybug, saviour (and illegal vigilante) of Paris, is most definitely a hero.





	1. i know this hurts (it was meant to)

**chapter 1: i know this hurts (it was meant to)**

 

* * *

 

Marinette leaned back against the cool wall behind the counter, shivering slightly as the chill sank into her skin. It had been a stifling summer, the heat heavy from dawn till dusk, and in the tiny Parisian bakery, there was little reprieve. Her father turned the ovens on at four AM, before the sun had even begun to emerge, so even night offered no brief sanctuary from the heat. But with the windows and doors propped open, a gentle breeze skittered through the small shop, and right now, the tranquillity of this slow summer day felt like bliss.

Before she could let herself enjoy the moment, she heard a familiar jingle, and shot back up to the counter. Business was slower on days such as today, and every customer counted. Upon glancing the supposed customer, however, she sighed, and laughing, reclined back into her original position.

“Don’t you have work today?”

Ayla grinned back, jumping up to perch next to the cash register, swinging her legs over in one smooth motion to face her best friend.

“And aren’t you supposed to have the day off?”

“Baking never takes the day off,” Marinette declared solemnly.

“As false as that statement is, it’s especially irrelevant considering you’re only working here part time! Come on Mari, I took the day off just to spend with _you_ ,” she trailed off, batting her eyes and attempting to induce her friend’s pity, although both knew that Marinette had become immune to Alya’s puppy dog eyes long ago.

“I can’t Ayla, I promised my parents I’d mind the shop, maybe tomorrow?” Marinette pleaded, hoping Hawkmoth would stay quiet for another day, although knowing he would not. She had been so busy recently, and while she herself knew there was a valid reason for her continued absences, she could hardly tell this to Alya.

“I had a feeling you might say that, which is why I brought the party to you!” She gestured dramatically towards the door. “You can thank me later,” she added, under her breath, smirking up at Marinette, who was watching the door with a look of confusion.

“Alya, there’s no one-”

“Oh right, I forgot. Guys, you can come in now!” She hollered in the general direction of the front window. Four silhouettes popped up in front of the bakery decal, clearly having previously been crouching just below the windowsill, and Marinette froze, as one of those silhouettes looked very, _very_ familiar. 

“Please tell me that’s not-”

“Just play it cool!” Alya shot back, answering Marinette’s question instantly. Marinette froze, before spinning and running to the mirror in the bathroom.

“No flour in my hair, good. Oh, I should wash my hair though, it looks terrible, when did I last wash it, crap, is there time to wash my hair?” She muttered under her breath in a panic, sentences merging together.

The voices she could hear through the wall into the bakery informed her there was not, in fact, time to wash her hair.

“Marinette? Hi! Sorry about the hiding, Alya thought it’d be funny!” Rose’s high pitched voice rang through the wall, and Marinette pulled her hair up into its signature pigtails quickly, before reluctantly emerging from the bathroom.

“Hi guys! Sorry, just needed to run to the bathroom, you know how it is when you work all day, always need the bathroom!” Marinette felt her face flush hotter than the oven behind her. Even as she mentally pleaded for her voice to stop, she felt her usual nervous babble run along beyond her control. “Well, not always need the bathroom, it’s not like I’m constantly in the bathroom, just, you know, a normal amount of bathroom time!" Finally, she regained a degree of agency, and managed to end the toilet monologing. "Anyway, um, hi! What are you guys all doing here? Where will the city police be without it's admin department?” She laughed, only slightly hysterically.

“We all took the day off because Adrien is back in town! And then we realised, he’s never actually been to the bakery, and since we all hang out here all the time, we thought we’d show him and see if you had any macarons going spare?” Rose attempted the wistful look Alya had been giving Marinette just minutes before. It was no more effective. Fortunately for Rose, Marinette had made a habit of setting a few of the less attractive (but no less delicious) products aside for when Alya and her friends from work (and by association, over time, Marinette’s friends) inevitably dropped in.

Laughing, she grabbed the box of extra products from under the counter and pushed it towards Juleka. “Here, I’m trusting you to ration it fairly Juleka.”

“Of course.” Juleka nodded solemnly, before immediately handing all the pink macarons over to Rose.

“Hey! What if I wanted the pink ones?’ Alya exclaimed.

“You don’t even like pink!” Rose rebutted, crumbs of macaron flying from her mouth as she spoke.

“Yeah, but I like strawberry! Girlfriend privileges are so unfair.” She grabbed a generic pastry from the box, and slumped over a chair to sulk.

Adrien, standing by the door with Nino, watched the exchange with one foot out the door. “Are they… actually fighting?”

“Nah man, it’s always like this, Alya just likes to make a point, if she really wanted those macarons Rose and Juleka would be flat out on the floor right now.”

“I… suppose?”

“Seriously dude, just come on in before they eat the rest of the good stuff, there’s normally at least a couple of éclairs going free, plus you haven’t seen Marinette in forever,” Nino strode over past Alya, who had resigned herself to glaring at the pastry instead of eating it, and grabbed a cream puff in each hand. “Not quite an éclair, but good enough. 

As his friends sprawled over the bakery seating, Adrien strode over past towards Marinette. Marinette froze so quickly Adrien couldn’t help but think she was somewhat reminiscent of the citizens of Paris following the assault of Stoneheart all those years ago.

“Um. Hi?” Marinette cursed herself internally for the lame greeting. She closed her eyes, shook her head, and focused. It was just Adrien. It was fine. She could do this. “I mean, hi! How was your trip?”

“Pretty good? I mean, I only got back like half an hour ago, but Nino and the others were very keen that I come right here, right now, right this second.” He rolled his eyes towards Nino, who was oblivious to all but the cakes he was continuing to extract from the seemingly bottomless box.

“Ha, yeah, him and Alya can be pretty hard to dissuade, especially when they’re working together.”

“Yeah, no kidding, I was _literally_ dragged across Paris, honestly, I think it’d be easier to escape my father, bodyguard and Natalié all at once than escape those two!”

At the mention of Adrien’s father, Marinette’s felt her eyes narrowed just a fraction, almost imperceptibly. “And… your father is doing alright?” Mention of Gabriel Agreste would always arouse her attention.

“Yeah, I suppose, as well as he ever is. He still doesn’t leave the house mind, but that’s not really anything new. And it’s not like he’d tell me if anything new did come up, even if it was concerning my mother." Adrien's mother, missing for the last six years, was a sore point between him and his father. Nino had told Marinette that the mansion was empty of any memory of the absent woman; so obviously erased that the empty halls echoed with the loss. Nino did not like the Agreste mansion. Neither did Marinette - but for different reasons.

A loaded silence quickly fell between the two of them, both avoiding eye contact, Marinette choosing to focus on reorganising the stock behind the cash register, Adrien simply biting his lip and furrowing his brow intensely.

“Anyway, sorry, yeah, there’s nothing new in my life really. And Milan was fine, although three months is a long time to be out of Paris!” The note of false exuberance in his voice betrayed Adrien's effort to avoid that particular topic. But Marinette appreciated the change of subject. Adrien had no way of knowing the events six years ago were as touchy a subject for Marinette as they were for himself. She drifted as she wondered over how someone who had been through so much hardship could still be as kind, and sweet, and wonderful as Adrien.

She was quickly pulled back to reality by a missed query and an expectant look from Adrien.

“Um. Sorry, just drifted off, what was that?” She lowered her head and cursed her romantic distraction.

“No, it’s fine! I was just wondering what you’ve been up to recently? I haven’t really seen you since before last Christmas, figure there’s probably a lot to catch up on!” He smiled, and Marinette pinched herself to realign her mind with reality.

“Right! Well, I mean I graduated? So that’s something!”

“Are you kidding? That’s amazing! You graduated from CentraleSupélec?”

“Not only that, she graduated top of her class!” Alya cut in, apparently not as oblivious to the conversation as she had been pretending to be.

“Wow Marinette, you’re kind of brilliant, you know that?”

“Well, I’m currently working part time because I don’t know what I’m even going to do with an engineering degree since I don’t actually want to be an engineer, so I’m not quite sure if that’s amazing or just kind of pathetic,” she feigned a bitter laugh for the sake of self-deprecation, although she secretly knew exactly why she had chosen engineering over fashion design, both being equal passions for her all the way through lycée.

“Well I think taking the time to find out what you’re really passionate about is great, I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t model for my father.” Adrien apparently, was not convinced by Marinette’s faux-self-pity.

“Dude, you’d do physics or something, you were always _awesome_ at it back in school!” Nino cut in.

“Maybe when I’m old and shrivelled and too unattractive to model anymore, I’ll pick up a degree in physics then,” Adrien laughed. Marinette also let loose a small smile, although her humour came at the prospect that Adrien could ever be unattractive.

“A physicist and an engineer, you two could totally like, work together if you did that Adrien!” Rose piped up from the corner. Juleka nodded in agreement.

“Hey yeah, what do you say Marinette, want to create some world changing inventions together if I ever manage to score retirement from modelling?”

“Ah, er, yes! Definitely! Hit me up! Although of course I don’t have any inventions yet so I would be terrible to work with." Marinette cursed the obvious falsity. "In fact, what even _is_ an invention, you know?” Marinette decided that she would be a much better liar if she just took a vow of silence and never spoke again.

“Anyway Adrien,” Alya cut in, her best friend taking pity on Marinette, who was still stuttering away behind the counter. “The reason we brought you here, is that since Mari started working here part time, this has now become our _official_ hang out spot on Fridays, Tuesdays, and every other Wednesday. As well as set group events such as birthdays, non-family-obligated holidays, etcetera. We have been forced into this timetable, as while Mari may be a recent graduate, she seems to have obtained remarkably little extra freedom despite this job being supposedly part time.” She nudged Marinette slightly, who shrugged and gestured to the shop in a helpless manner.

“Oh… cool! I mean, my dad keeps me pretty busy, but I’ll definitely make it when I can!” he smiled reassuringly at Marinette, who had apparently committed to her vow of silence of thirty seconds earlier, and simply nodded vigorously, eyes wide, grinning in a way which veer

“Good.” Alya’s face was serious. “I’ll add you to the spreadsheet.”

 

* * *

 

Marinette hopped up through the trapdoor to her balcony, waving cheerfully at her friends down below as they headed home. The sky was beginning to darken, the sun having just dipped below the horizon.

She smiled to herself at the contrast. Just downstairs she had been Marinette, shy and clumsy, who can barely get a normal sentence out around her crush, and yet now, she felt like Ladybug, cool, confident, and sure of her intentions. She wished she could bring a little more of Ladybug into her everyday self, but then, that compartmentalisation has been helpful in avoiding any suspicions as to her true identity up until now.

She lifted the small side table sitting towards the edge of the balcony, grabbing her yo-yo out from the compartment she had built into the balcony beneath it. To call it a yo-yo was a little simplistic, she knew. It was more of a mutated grappling hook. She’d first come up with the prototype years ago, aged eight, as she scribbled her superhero costume designs on the backs of scrap paper, her parents fondly encouraging her aspirations. The yo-yo had been the key part of her fantasy costume for one of her favourite heroes who had a (she had thought) circus themed miraculous, able to summon rings of fire and leap through them to propel herself. That hero had disappeared in one of the first assaults from Hawkmoth six years ago, during the Stoneheart attacks. Marinette had been one of the last to see her, as she fought to save a small, scared sixteen-year-old girl from a stone coffin. Her use of the yo-yo now was a tribute.

She checked it over carefully. The yo-yo was extremely resilient, able to withstand a pressure of one hundred million pascals, and weighing around three kilograms (Marinette often had to hide the fact that since working with it, she had become a hell of a lot stronger than she looked). She had built it from scratch, siphoning materials from the engineering department as she worked on various projects, constantly switching speciality so the loss would be less likely to be noticed.

She pulled on the cable lightly, stroking the magnetic stainless steel rings which ran along its length. This was the part of the yo-yo she was most proud of. The silicon-carbide reinforced body held an electromagnet, and with just a click of a button on the underneath of the end of the cable, she could activate it. The magnet then locked onto the nearest ring, dragging it into a mechanism which then clamped down onto the cable and fed it through the body of the yo-yo, wrapping it around itself. Assuming she jumped, the propulsion allowed the yo-yo to pull her towards the object it was hooked onto. If not, the object was pulled towards her.

And the best part was, it’s subtlety. To the undiscerning eye, it looked like a regular yo-yo. It looked like the power came from her, not the invention. It was large, yes, but it was normal. And she looked powerful. She looked magical. She looked, well, _Miraculous._

With this, no one in Paris knew just how normal their Ladybug truly was.

 

* * *

 

Nino and the others split from Adrien near his house. His father had apparently been calling him all afternoon, and even though at twenty-two he had no obligation to be at his father’s beck and call every second at the day, Nino was not surprised that not much had changed since collège. Adrien always had put his father over everything else.

“Ah that was fun, I’m glad we managed to get Adrien out of the house before his father locks him up in a tower for another hundred years.” Alya sighed contentedly.

“Yeah, shame he couldn’t stay though.” Juleka glanced towards the direction Adrien had left in, looking concerned.

Rose slipped her hand into Juleka’s, smiling up and squeezing reassuringly. “He’ll be fine! I know we didn’t know him back in school or anything, but Nino said it’s always been like this, and Adrien always manages to get some time to himself! As long as we manage to sneak him out occasionally, then I’ll be happy!” A few flowers suddenly grew up out of cracks in the pavement around Juleka and Rose, and swayed in the breeze in a calm manner. Juleka leaned over to pick one, and placed it in Rose’s hair, kissing her on the cheek as she leaned in. Nino looked away, the moment feeling too intimate to be witnessed by anyone outside of the loved-up pairing.

Suddenly Alya’s phone buzzed, and she grabbed it out of her pocket, narrowing her eyes as she read the message on the screen. “Anyway, it’s probably for the best, just got a message from the force. They want the whole team in, including us. Apparently, Hawkmoth doesn’t care we took the day off. He’s making a move. Tonight.” Typical, he thought. Not that they hadn't expected to be called in tonight - it was a Dormant night, after all. It was a miracle Chloé had allowed them out in the day. Likely she just wanted them out of the way while she dealt with tactics for the assault later tonight.

“Ooh do you reckon Ladybug will come?” Rose squeaked. Rose was a huge fangirl of Ladybug, despite her non-legal status as far as the team were concerned.

“She’s an illegal vigilante, she’s not on the Miraculous Force…” Juleka murmured.

“Please. She’ll be there. Where there’s a Dormant, there’s Ladybug.” Alya spoke dismissively. Nino couldn't help but flush a little at that tone in her voice - it was Rena Rouge shining through her civilian persona - and it was undeniably attractive.

“Yeah. But unfortunately, where there’s Ladybug…” he hesitantly added.

In unison, the others spoke: “There’s Chat Noir.”

 

* * *

 

Adrien pushed into the room, absent of light, black as pitch, mind heavy and body weary.

“Father, I’m home.” He called into the darkness.

“Adrien. You’re late.” The voice of Hawkmoth cut back, sharp as ever. Irritated, he thought, although his voice rarely betrayed even as much emotion as that to his son.

“I’m sorry father, I-”

“It does not matter.” Gabriel cut in, dismissing Adrien instantly. “We have a plan. I've had this in the works for some time. Tonight, those  _heroes_ won't know what hit them. And tonight, we will finally begin victory.”

“Yes father.”

“Get dressed. And don't hold back with your Miraculous. I do not intend to see us disgraced tonight.”

Adrien pulled the ring off his finger, and stared at his hand blankly, as a faint black cloud slowly enveloped it. Gabriel Agreste ( _Hawkmoth,_ he reminded himself) strode out of the room, not once turning to look at his son. And Adrien followed.

He didn’t even notice as he brushed a small houseplant with his hand as he left.

The plant turned brown. Then grey. Then black.

It crumbled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a kudos/comment if you liked (if you like ;p) (this is my first fic in ages, and first one I’ve actually posted in years, so feedback would be great! This is gonna be a kind of long fic I think, there’s a lot of back story to get into, and a lot of plot still to come! Thanks so much for reading, lots of love ❤️


	2. my conscience called in sick again

**Chapter 2: my conscience called in sick again**

 

* * *

 

Ladybug threw herself through the air, as the lights of the moonlit city rushed past her in a blur. Just before she would have slammed against the ground, leaving nothing but a red and black smear on the concrete, she caught herself using her yo-yo, and repeated her flight once more.

Hours later, moon gleaming high and waxing, a smear upon the sky, she took her first break, settled on top of a small apartment block.

It had been six months since Hawkmoth’s last corruption, so tonight they were due for another. She didn’t know why he followed such a regular pattern, and it worried her. Not being in the Force, Marinette didn’t know much about how natural Miraculous worked, let alone how Hawkmoth managed to release the dormant Miraculous of normal citizens.

Six years ago, when Stoneheart, the first Dormant, had emerged, Ladybug hadn’t been active – she hadn't even been a thought in Marinette's mind. There was only the Miraculous Force, the Final Generation as they were now called. Wiped out trying to counter the assault. Every day, more and more Parisians fell victim to the corruption of the Dormant, trapped within an unbreakable stone suit. And as the days passed, for some, those suits became coffins.

Ultimately, Stoneheart himself had simply disappeared, and the suits dissolved. As the active Miraculous Force of the time were wiped out and no one appeared to stop his assault, it appeared almost as if Hawkmoth lost interest. Sonic Zoom, the youngest member of the team at just seventeen, had been the only survivor of the Final Generation. Of course, new members had been recruited since, but the term 'the Final Generation' was still used - no one could forget that merciless slaughter.

Gabriel Agreste, the designer of the costumes of all active Miraculous Force users, was so traumatised by the loss of a whole generation of his colleagues so soon after the disappearance of his wife, receded into his home, and gave up hero design entirely, entering the popular fashion industry instead. And recently, he had given up on even that. And Adrien, his son, still reeling from the loss of his mother, became more trapped than ever, stuck in that empty mansion subject to the whims of the shell of his father.

Marinette cursed her sixteen year-old self’s ineptitude – if only she had been as she was now, then, she could have done something to help. But then, a fully trained team of superheroes hadn’t been able to put so much as a scratch on the Dormant, what could an immature lycée student offer that they couldn’t?

She could not change the past. She _could_ stop that kind of massacre from ever happening again.

Since then, Hawkmoth had been activating a new Dormant exactly once every six months, each time drawing out the next Miraculous Force at full power. None since Stoneheart had been so destructive, but the city lived under the shadow of the hundreds who had been lost that week. Some of the Dormants were still active and were constantly wrecking havoc somewhere in the city – she knew for a fact that Volpina had been making regular appearances for the past two years, much to her annoyance. Volpina had a particular grudge against Ladybug for some reason, not choosing to focus on the Miraculous Force as other Dormants tended to. The Miraculous Force after all, was thriving. 

What had once been nothing more than a superhero police PR team had become an epic group, on par with the heroes of legend in the past. After all, what better to encourage teenagers to become superheroes than to have supervillains for them to fight?

And then there was Chat.

And right on cue, she heard a light thump on the roof behind her.

“I know they say speak of the devil and he shall appear, didn’t realise that extended to my thoughts now as well.” Marinette did not so much as turn as she spoke. There was no mystery as to who had caught her – very few people could track down Ladybug, and fewer still managed to find her with such alarming consistency.

“M’lady was thinking of me? Truly, I’m puuuurfectly honoured.” He smirked as he spoke, making a single step in her direction.

“Unfortunately, you are rarely far from my thoughts. Especially on nights such as this one, chaton.”

“You flatter me, truly. I wish we had the time for a _cat_ ch up, but, well. You know the date as well as I do. 

“Even the Miraculous Force have caught onto the pattern by now I’m sure. It's been six years. Queen Bee may be a nightmare, but she’s not stupid.” She rolled her eyes. “And why are you back around anyway? I’ve had a perfectly lovely few months with you gone, don’t tell me I’m going to have to deal with you following me around all the time again.”

“Well, when you insist on tracking Hawkmoth rather than sorting out the Dormants like all the good little superheroes, what choice do I have but to _tail_ you?”

Silence.

“Come on, _tail_ , you get it? Like, cats have tails, I’m tailing you, it’s good!”

 “It’s something.”

 “You wound me.” He feigned wiping his eyes, but undermined himself by not once dropping his lazy grin.

 “Why are you here, Chat?” She didn’t have time for this right now – Hawkmoth must be at his most vulnerable on the nights he released a Dormant, these were the nights when she _knew_ she could track him down, when she could face him. Master Fu told her that her plan was unfounded - that she had no reason to believe he was any weaker than usual. But she just needed to find the source of the new Dormant - and she would find his lair. She had yet to capture him (yet to even  _see_ him - the man had never once made a public appearance). but even that was just a matter of time. But whenever Chat Noir appeared, her job became so much harder. The cat had a knack for annoying her. She was sure the main reason Hawkmoth used Chat was just to _irritate_ people. 

Although, his powers were a pretty compelling reason as well. Destruction seemed an apt Mirculous for a supervillain.

 “Can we… talk?” Chat drooped just a fraction, his ever-present smirk slipping off his face.

 “You want to… _talk_?” Marinette could scarcely hide her incredulity. Ladybug and Chat Noir had been active for four years, two years longer than the current Miraculous Force themselves. And in that time, they had never once had a genuine conversation. They spoke, sure, classic nemesis back and forth banter. Chat loved nothing more than a pun, Ladybug relished whatever pertinent information she could get out of Hawkmoth’s right-hand man. But actual, intentional communication? Never.

 “Yes. Look, M’lady.”

 She narrowed her eyes.

 “Bugaboo?”

 “That’s actually worse.”

 “M’lady it is!” He grinned again, triumphant, before quickly becoming serious again. “There’s… something going on.”

 “Yeah, obviously. It’s been six months since the last Dormant.”

 “Not like that. I mean, with Hawkmoth. He’s planning something.”

 “Isn’t he always? And, not to be rude, Chat-” She cut herself off. “Actually, no. I do mean to be rude. Why the hell should I trust you?”

 “Oh, you definitely shouldn’t. Hawkmoth would kill me himself if he knew I was telling you any of this.” He winked, but his demeanour was sober enough that it fell flat.  “And as high as m’lady stands in my regard, I would still much rather my survival over yours, or any of your do-good friends for that matter.”

 “I don’t know if I’d go so far as to call us friends.”

 “Oh really? Then what’s all this I’ve been hearing about you and a certain Sonic the Hedgehog?” Chat brushed his hand against a television antennae nearby, averting his eyes as he watched it turn to dust.

 “Do you mean Sonic Zoom?" _Luka_ , she corrected in her head. "He’s a retired hero now, so people like you have no reason to know anything about him anymore. And you shouldn’t be cruel, I happened to quite like his hair. Plus, you know, he’s not speedy at _everything_.” At this, she smirked and raised her eyebrows, relishing the way Chat’s nose wrinkled and his eyes went flat. “Besides… that didn’t work out.” She added reluctantly.

“Oh _really_?” His eyes widened with renewed interest. “Good to know. I can’t really see you with any guy who calls himself _Sonic Zoom._ ”

 Marinette also hated the name, but she refused to actively agree with Chat. “So, you were saying there’s something going on?”

 “Yeah. He’s been withdrawing, says he has a plan, and he can’t fail. And he says he’s going to use me more. And that makes me concerned, for obvious reasons.” He gestured at the ex-antennae, now ashes, beside him. “But I don’t know more than that sadly. Hawkmoth’s secrets have secrets, and while I know more than most, I would never presume myself to understand anything about the man.”

 “Oh, so he _is_ a man. Interesting.”

 “Please, I’m sure you had figured that one out years ago. The Dormants are hardly variable with their pronoun usage for their master.”

 “True, but you had no way of knowing that, and it’s always nice when you slip up.”

 “Meowch!” Laughing, he swung down so he was sitting on the edge of the roof next to where Marinette stood. The two of them looked out over the city. The streets were silent – no one wanted to be out on a night when a Dormant may begin to rise.

 “Look, m’lady. I’m not going to pretend I’m on your side. I’m not. But I have my own reasons for what I do. And I do still have a moral compass, however warped it may be.”

 “So, you want me to take pity on you, the poor villain who _accidentally_ aligned himself with the only person in the city worse than himself?” Marinette scoffed at his presumption.

 “I just want you to be careful. I’m not much of a threat to you, but Hawkmoth is. And he's starting to get desparate.”

 “Oh no, you’d never hurt me, it’s just the rest of Paris that’s fair game? That’s terrible. At least _I’m_ able to look after myself.” Marinette didn’t want to listen to him anymore. Chat was constantly spouting nonsense about his admiration of her. It was fine when he was clearly just trying to distract her, they’d always had an unusually playful relationship for enemies. But in a sincere conversation? She didn’t want to hear another word.

Before she jumped into the inky blackness of the night, away from the man who always made her chest tight with a feeling she couldn’t quite pinpoint, she turned back a final time. “I’ll be careful Chat. But I’ve never trusted Hawkmoth.”

“Ladybug…”

“Right now, its yourself you should be worried about.” And with that, she ascended off into the night, Chat below, not taking his eyes off her until she was long gone.

“Time to get to work.” He muttered.

 

* * *

 

Chloé had been speaking for 1 hour, 9 minutes, and 12 seconds, and Alya was, to put it bluntly, annoyed. 

“Are we actually gonna get to go on this mission tonight, or is our grand plan to let the Queen’s ego _crush_ the new Dormant to death?” She muttered to Nino next to her.

Nino blinked rapidly, his eyes quickly focusing from their previously glazed and glassy state. “What?”

“I know this is important and all, but my _god_ can this girl talk.”

“It’s Chloé, what did you expect?”

“She’s a better leader than Luka was, I’ll give her that, I guess I just hoped that power would temper her. Guess you shouldn’t give a narcissist a megaphone and be surprised when they holler just to hear their voice.”

“Come on, that’s harsh Al.” Nino, unfortunately, forgot to temper his voice, and immediately drew the attention of Chloe’s narrowed glare.

“Something to share with the group, Carapace? Although, I do happen to remember a certain encounter with our favourite local bubbler last week, that suggests maybe you should zip it, and actually listen to the group. You might learn something about how to be a _real_ hero.”

Nino stared at her sullenly. “Sorry boss.”

Chloé nodded, a smug smile on her face at his submission

 “I take it back. She’s the devil.” Nino muttered to Alya

 The local media had taken to calling Queen Bee the blonde bombshell of the Miraculous Force, and Alya agreed, but only in the sense that she, much like a bombshell, was excellent at making people explode. Unfortunately for everyone in the room she was also a master tactician, and had helped to eliminate four residual Dormants in her four months since ascending to leadership alone, including Alya’s own personal nemesis, Lady Wifi, who had a particularly nasty grudge against Rena Rouge for some unknown reason. Turns out, the woman just really hated the colour orange.

 “So, is everyone caught up?”

Chloé’s voice cut through Alya’s internal monologue, and she glanced up to see her leader’s gaze fixed directly on her, daring her to admit she hadn’t been listening. Alya just rolled her eyes.

“I’ll summarise, for those of you who may have apparently had better things to focus on than the protection of Paris.”

Chloé may have been the most spiteful person this side of the Seine, but even she wouldn’t let an opportunity to embarrass Alya jeopardise a mission. Especially tonight.

“We’re taking two squads out tonight, teams of three. The remaining four are to form a third reserve squad which I want to survey the rest of the city in pairs, and keep an eye out for any normal petty crime. With the streets this quiet, I’m worried some criminals will become opportunistic. But keep your communicators on. We don’t know what Hawkmoth has planned, so we may need to call you over at any time.”

She turned to face Alya and Nino. “You’re with me.” 

“No!”

“Absolutely not.”

“I don’t care what you say. Carapace’s shell is mainly defensive, and Rena Rouge can’t fight when she’s making an illusion. Unfortunately, I’m the obvious tactical choice to group with you two tonight. Trust me, it’s as disgusting to me as it apparently is to the two of you. And I’m not a fan of third wheeling.”

Alya unfortunately could not disagree. Queen Bee’s nails caused instant paralysis if they so much as scratched their target. This, in conjunction with the several knives she carried with her dipped in poison extracted from under her nails, and the natural extreme strength and agility which came from being Miraculous, meant that Chloé was once of their strongest offence team members. Didn’t make her any less of a bitch though. She heard the last part of the sentence too late, and before she could object, since she and Nino were definitely  _not_ a couple, Chloé had moved on.

“Kim, Alix, Shadow.”

“I’m going by Eagle now actually.”

“Yeah, and I’ve switched from Timepiece to the Watchwoman, it just feels less objectifying you know? Plus, some people thought it meant peace, like, I’m a pacifist or something? Which is the opposite of what I want, I only took this job for the fighting!”

“Whatever.”

“Um. Chloé? How come I’m the only one you didn’t call by name?” Sabrina hesitantly added.

“Fine! Eagle, Watchwoman, _Sabrina_ ,” she rolled her eyes in disgust. “You’re together, it worked well last mission. Just be careful not to pause time when Kim is about to fly off something Alix, it only throws him off.”

“It’s for literally five seconds at a time.”

“Yeah, but he’s stupid, so that’s usually enough”

“Hey!”

 “ _MOVING ON._ ” Chloé declared, turning so the bickering group were out of her line of sight.

“Juleka and Rose, Ivan and Mylène, same as ever.”

 “Yay!” Rose jumped for joy, and squealed when a compact air region subtly summoned by Juleka propelled her far higher than she had been expecting to go.

 “I love the elemental squad.” Mylène beamed up at Ivan. Ivan blushed. Unfortunately, this only caused Mylène to smile even brighter, which led to her and Ivan being stuck in a vicious cycle.

Leaving them to it, Chloé turned back to the front of the room.

“Max.”

“Robotnik.”

“Yeah, I’m not calling you that stupid name except when I have no choice. You’re on coordination, as usual. I want you to keep an eye on the city’s grid, shut down any areas where it looks like Hawkmoth could be hiding out. He’s always somewhere nearby on a Dormant’s first night. Don’t think we’ll need much other electrical influence tonight, so looks like you got lucky.”

“And that’s the plan?”

“That’s the plan.” Chloé nodded. “Don’t fuck this up for me, I have a perfect record as Captain so far and I don’t intend to let certain _children_ ruin it.” Alix and Kim couldn’t explain why her gaze didn’t leave them as she spoke, but they didn’t let it interfere with their wrestling match.

Alya turned to the dressing room, but a thought crossed her mind, and she swivelled back on herself.

“Hey, Queen? What if Ladybug shows up? Are we feeling arrest-y tonight?”

 “No. We work with her. I have a gut feeling that tonight is going to be tough. And as much as I hate to admit it, considering our history, the girl is _good._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this AU, once someone becomes a dormant (effectively an akuma but a little different for reasons not yet adressed) they aren't usually saved - this is why Dormants are quite rare, and why I haven't just made the others have their akumatised forms be their superhero form.
> 
> The canon akuma still exist though, they're just different people. And even though Hawkmoth activates a new Dormant every 6 months, that doesn't mean the previous one is necessarily defeated.
> 
> Please comment if you enjoyed it! (or if you have any feedback or questions!)


	3. you're a canary (i'm a coal mine)

**chapter 3: you’re a canary (i’m a coal mine)**

 

* * *

 

 Adrien’s skin was writhing, a thousand tiny insects scuttling about, flowing from his hands into his core. He shuddered, pulled off his ring. The scuttling dissolved. But the power he could feel trying to escape only grew stronger, so he slipped the ring back on, and resolved himself to endure it.

He missed Ladybug. When they were together, he could forget about his mother, about the Dormants, about the million things he’d rather not think about but couldn’t seem to force from his mind (his _Miraculous)_. Their rivalry had been one of his favourite things about becoming a villain. The Miraculous Force were too much of a direct threat, but Ladybug, while she often worked alongside them, seemed to have her own agenda, mainly concerned with only Hawkmoth himself rather than with the Dormants. Adrien admired that – she was easily powerful enough to join the Force, but never seemed to feel the need to bow to their authority. The Miraculous Force mostly just seemed to _bug_ her.

He snorted. Where was Ladybug when you needed her? After all, there was no point in making brilliant puns alone. But of course, she was off fighting crime, and right now he was supposed to be doing exactly the opposite.

When he’d first met the red clad hero he’d been just eighteen, fresh out of Lycée and ready to wreck some minor havoc in the hopes of drawing out a few illegal heroes. He’d had one specific vigilante in mind (the _Peacock,_ missing and  _suspicious)_ , and had idiotically allowed his mind to wander, as he aided Lady Wifi in knocking down power grids city-wide. So, when he was knocked flat on his back by a deceptively petite red blur, he had been taken aback, to say the least.

A quick cataclysm later (he'd named his power himself - he was _very_ committed to sticking to the cat theme), he’d escaped. But not for long – Ladybug had made an appearance at least once a week since that first encounter – and of course, how could Chat Noir resist going out to play when his favourite bugaboo was on the scene?

The first two years of their careers, had been perfect. Focusing primarily on each other, with Hawkmoth remaining removed from released Dormants and only Chat Noir sent to supervise them, he’d found a certain tranquillity in the regular ebb and flow of their animosity. Chat Noir was mostly just intrigued - here was a never-before seen, presumably non-trained hero, who was showing up the Miraculous Force of the time to the point where they made a public announcement formally decrying her. Her Miraculous was an unknown entity too, although god only knew how many forum posts there were speculating. No one had managed to pin the woman down long enough to find out however – except for himself, but even he was none the wiser.  
Adrien had always prided himself on his perseverance however.

He was glad he’d managed to catch her, however briefly. It felt like old times – without Hawkmoth’s growing desperation, and without the danger he suspected ( _knew)_ was coming. Tonight had been especially aggravating, to say the least. Volpina had been out and about for the past few nights, and Hawkmoth had sent him to go and warn her to stay away from the Dormant he was unleashing tonight – one of a particularly… destructive nature.

He regularly kept up with the surviving Dormants, of course, some of whom still dwelled in the cells beneath the manor, where they had lived for those months alone with only Hawkmoth for company. Bubbler was his favourite to check up on. The man had once identified as an accountant called Benjamin, and had been thrilled when Hawkmoth offered him the chance to show up the superheroes who wasted their powers, considered by many as dogs of the military. Adrien could agree with that kind of ideology, and Bubbler was largely harmless, enjoying wreaking havoc far more than actually hurting people, which Chat Noir strongly identified with.

Volpina had valued her independence far too much for that, even retaining her civilian identity, but unfortunately for Adrien, Lila (her civilian counterpart) had chosen to continue her model work alongside villainy, and therefore he saw her quite regularly. Adrien took advantage of this to avoid having to check on her as Volpina – while Lila, unaware of Adrien’s double life, was perfectly lovely to him, Volpina took cruelty to a whole other level – and had no fondness for Chat Noir.

He sighed, heaving, and glanced over at a clock in a nearby window. It was nearly ten, and he had another hour to kill before Fire-ringer would be released by Hawkmoth. Double-taking, he switched the focus of his gaze to the storefront of the shop – which he suddenly realised was a little _too_ familiar.

Shit. He’d been so distracted that he hadn’t been paying attention to where he was wandering, and apparently, his subconscious really fancied a pastry right now.

The lights were off in the Dupain-Cheng bakery, which made sense – when he’d left earlier, Marinette had been closing up shop, and several hours had passed since then. What was more unusual was the darkness of the upper floors. He knew Tom and Sabine wouldn’t be back in Paris until tomorrow, hence why Marinette had been left minding the shop. However, he would have expected Marinette herself to be home – certainly, she shouldn’t be wandering the streets. Paris was all but deserted right now, everyone inside, anticipating the attack of the next Dormant, the chaos usually restricted to the roads, with only those civilians foolish enough to venture outside being caught in the crossfire. And yet, the eerie silence of the building worried Adrien. He only knew Marinette through Nino and Alya, having left school halfway through collège, and being home-schooled through all of Lycée, when the three had met each other. So, he didn’t know whether she was likely to take foolhardy risks. Whenever he spoke to her the girl seemed half terrified – while his other friends attested that she was usually considerably more confident, Adrien found it hard to imagine her so confident that she would take the chance of encountering a Dormant.

Adrien was worried for his friend. But he was Chat Noir right now, and Chat Noir didn’t have any attachment to the dark haired baker-engineer. However, the attack was going to be close enough to the bakery that he broke, and a sliver of Adrien broke through his carefully controlled persona.

Glancing behind him, and seeing nothing but dimly lit paving, void of witnesses, he leapt up to the roof of the building in one smooth motion. Marinette’s curtains were drawn, but no light shone from behind them. So either the woman had retired at an unusually early hour, or she wasn’t home. From the roof, he had a good vantage point of the surrounding area, and aside from the occasional patrolling member of the non-powered police, not a soul was visible.

Odd. 

Grabbing his phone out of his pocket, he shot a text to Nino, as he pounced between rooftops in the direction of the park, the only other location where he could imagine Marinette being at this hour.

 

To: Nino Lahiffe

**Bit of a random question, but do you know if Marinette has any plans this evening?**

Upon reaching the park, and seeing that too was empty, he furrowed his brow and perched on top of a swing-set, waiting for his phone to buzz. He imagined a passer-by would find a level of hilarity in the contrast – Chat Noir, scourge of Paris, second only to Hawkmoth himself in infamy, brooding in a child’s playpark while waiting for a text. Then again, if there were passers-by, their first reaction would likely be to run, rather than risk their life antagonising a villain.

His pocket vibrated, and he grabbed hurriedly at his pocket, nearly overbalancing and falling to the ground as he did so.

 

From: Nino Lahiffe

**not that i know of, y? u hoping to ask her out? ;) ;) ;) ;) <3 <3 <3 **

So Marinette wasn’t out with the others – and hadn’t told them she wouldn’t be home either. He hoped Hawkmoth hadn’t chosen her as his next target – he always kidnapped his next victim on the night a Dormant was released. But Adrien was fairly certain that his father was targeting a local weather girl for the next round of assault, so unless he’d switched tactics without informing Adrien (which, admittedly, would not be out of character), Marinette should be safe on that front.

 

To: Nino Lahiffe

**Haha, no don’t worry, she's safe from my charms ;-)  My dad isn’t around right now so I was just thinking about going for a walk, and thought I might stop by the bakery to see if she wanted any company since her parents aren’t in Paris right now.**

Best not to mention the date – Adrien certainly shouldn’t know much about the Dormants, being trapped in the house or out of the country the majority of the time, and there was no point in raising Nino’s suspicions.

 

From: Nino Lahiffe

**dude ur so nice, and u should definitely do that another night ;) but maybe stay inside 2nite? is a 6 month hawkmoth date, not safe 2 b out yanno**

To: Nino Lahiffe

**Oh right, I’d completely forgotten! Yeah, I’ll stay inside, don’t want to get caught up in anything dangerous. You stay safe too, no venturing out to secretly meet Alya!**

From: Nino Lahiffe

**adrieeeeeen we’re just friends u know that :””””””(**

To: Nino Lahiffe

**For now. ;-)**

One more quick scan of the area later, and Adrien was confused but satisfied. Marinette was still unaccounted for – possibly the only civilian in Paris who wasn’t currently cowering at home. But she didn’t appear to be in the danger zone for tonight, the streets fortunately still unoccupied. He wasn’t overly worried; Marinette was smart enough to stay out of trouble. But he _was_ intrigued. Clearly, even Marinette didn’t tell Nino and Alya everything.

There would be time to investigate tomorrow. But tonight, Chat Noir was busy. It was 11PM. And he had a Dormant to retrieve.

* * *

 

Turned out, there had been no need for Chloé’s carefully planned patrol route, designed to locate the Dormant of the night with maximised efficiency. Because this time, it would have been impossible to miss them.

Nino, Alya and Chloé all paused, and turned slowly in the direction of the explosion. Chloé did not even pause for breath before grabbing her communicator and belting out instructions.

“Patrol teams, beta team, all head to quadrant five. We’re facing a high risk of civilian casualty, Dormant appears to utilise some kind of pyrotechnic power, likely combustion. Ivan, we’ll need you to stand back, we may need water to put out any residual fires to minimise damage spread. Mylène, you can be on the front line, you have a degree of fire resistance correct?” 

“Right.”

“Good. And hurry. I don’t know what that explosion was, but it didn’t look good.”

They leapt toward the scene, arriving in less than two minutes. Upon observing the scene in front of her,  Alya thanked the stars for the extreme strength and agility which came alongside any miraculous, allowing them to travel at speeds matching that of the fastest cars. Because if they had been any later, the situation would likely have been much worse.

The building affected was a small office building, dwarfed by the taller apartment blocks surrounding it. Or at least, it had been just minutes before. A huge chunk was missing from the top right corner, flaming debris on the ground below being the most likely conclusion as to its fate. And a small figure standing upon the still intact roof seemed to be the most likely source of the devastation. She was dressed in a flamboyant outfit which would not be amiss in a circus, including a yellow cape and top hat (and Alya mentally berated this design choice on behalf of Marinette – there was nothing more dangerous and needlessly showy for a superhero – or villain – than a cape). She wore red knee high boots, and an orange body suit. The whole ensemble rather resembled a candle flame, Alya mused. It also seemed eerily familiar, but she dismissed this thought, attesting the similarity to the resemblance of the ensemble to that of Mylène’s uniform.

The woman stood squarely in the centre of the rooftop, quaking hysterically as she observed the destruction around her. 

“I’ve missed this,” her voice shook. Alya found herself unable to tell whether the woman was laughing or crying.

“Is she… crying?” Nino landed next to her, apparently having the same issue. 

“I think both?”

And wasn’t that a kicker – normally, it was easy to bring herself to fight a villain – there were no moral qualms about kicking the ass of some maniac who got their kicks from causing pain. But this woman appeared visibly distressed, and Alya found herself more concerned for the wellbeing of the Dormant than for the destroyed building on which she stood. 

“Are you… okay?” She hesitantly spoke. The woman turned to her slowly, eyes wide, all semblance of emotion wiped from her face.

“I’m perfect, thank you Rena Rouge.” Alya took a step back, even more disconcerted. The woman had gone from distraught to impassive in seconds, and had addressed Alya by name. Something odd was happening here – this was no normal Dormant.

“Who _are_ you?” Chloé moved beside Alya, frowning as she confronted the woman.

The woman smiled magnanimously. “I am Fire-Ringer. And tonight, I seek revenge.”

She sucked in a breath, and Alya prepared herself for a grand speech, since surely only comic-book villain worthy exposition could justify such a dramatic inhalation.

Turned out, exploding rings of fire produced by breathing could justify it too.

“Fire-Ringer is… an apt… nickname. Very... on the nose.” Alya panted minutes later, as she and Mylène attempted to find a hole in the new villain’s defence.

“Yeah no kidding! Cover me!” Alya conjured an illusion of Mylène to distract the woman, as the real fire-Miraculous Force member dived through one of the loops and directly at the villain. She managed to land a solid right-hook on the woman before she was blown away by yet another explosion, landing squarely on her back next to Alya.

“Yikes, I’m amazed she’d risk an explosion at that kind of distance from herself!” Mylène huffed as she made impact.

“She doesn’t act with any self-preservation at all!” Ivan cut in from behind them, where he was busy dousing fires which threatened to grow out of control. While the office building appeared to be quiet, any fire could spread, and the last thing the Miraculous Force press team wanted to deal with was collateral damage.

Alya couldn’t help but agree – whoever this woman was, whatever Hawkmoth had done to her, it really seemed like she had nothing to lose.

“We could… really use Ladybug right now!” Nino added from next to Ivan, force-field protecting the water user from the explosions which surrounded the group.

“Don’t say that, what kind of superhero team are we if we can’t defeat one Dormant without the help of a vigilante?” Alix landed from above, and Alya blinked in disbelief, before seeing Kim descend also, Sabrina (presumably) in his arms. She shimmered into existence, apology already evident in her eyes.

“I’m soooooo sorry we’re late, we were already apprehending a robber when we got the call and we really didn’t want to leave him to run free after we’d already arrested him, pleeeease forgive us Queen!” Her eyes were fixed on Alya, but it was evident the apology was intended for no-one other than Chloé.

“Whatever, just help!” Chloé’s voice cut through Sabrina’s wavering defence like ice, and the three jumped to attention, joining the other seven heroes in their battle. 

Unnoticed by the group, just one building over, green eyes watched, and waited.

 

* * *

 

  

Marinette landed softly on a window ledge, several feet away and one floor down from where the action was taking place. She briefly contemplated joining the fray, before dismissing the idea. Some Dormants she could take on easily, from a combat perspective she was among the best. But this flame wielding Dormant was too much – without the supernatural healing powers of a Miraculous, one good hit could take her out, potentially permanently.

She needed to be sneaky for this one. Fortunately, Ladybug was well known for her… creative solutions.

Slipping down the side of the half-collapsed fire escape, she grabbed a metal nail file out of her pocket, and, tried to slip it into a gap in the frame of the window next to her. When the window failed to acquiesce, she skimmed her environment quickly.

Her darting eyes paused on a pile of still smouldering debris two floors below her. Perfect.

Two minutes later, and the now scorching hot nail file easily melted through the cheap plastic window frame, providing a perfect opening for her to smoothly prise the window open. She was already planning her stealth entrance into the battle as she removed the pushed aside the glass.

Slipping into the building however, she froze in horror.

Dozens of eyes stared up fearfully. She was momentarily confused, until she realised that only her silhouette was visible, backlit as she was, and they had no way to tell whether she was friend or foe. She moved to the wall, and the room full of frightened civilians all leaned back, shoulders tensed. Finding the light-switch beside her ineffective, the explosions wrecking the floor above presumably having short circuited the system, she instead pulled out her phone and turned on the torch app. Not a very superhero-esque action, she berated, but unfortunately, she didn’t have time to produce one of her trademark makeshift solutions. The light revealed to her stairs blocked by wreckage in the corner next to her, explaining why the group were huddled towards the less damaged side of the building, imprisoned and petrified.

“It’s Ladybug,” She whispered, illuminating her face as she spoke as so to support her assertion. No one moved, but she could feel the tension in the room dissipate as any immediate threat was dismissed (although, she supposed, the risk of the building exploding at any time was a pretty high risk situation too). “What are you all doing here?”

“W- we were told our apartment building was likely to be targeted by the new Dormant, s-so we were moved here for the night.” One man spoke up, voice wavering, but strong and clear through the darkness and crashing from above. 

“Can you help us please miss Ladybug?” A high pitched voice, unmistakably that of a child. Blinking, Marinette finally shook herself out of her head and focused on the individual figures, clustered together into families, parents and children, left here to die. She felt anger wash over her – this was no mistake – there was no reason for these people to be here unless this was a deliberate ploy by Hawkmoth. But she dialled her rage back – there would be time to avenge this horror later. But right now, they were all alive. And she could help them. 

“Of course.” She smiled as widely as she could, fixing her expression so that no emotion other than confidence could slip through. “Two at a time, how many of you are there total?”

“Th- thirty-two.” The same man spoke again – he appeared to be the father of three of the children in the room, all who were clinging to him so tightly their knuckles were white and their grip shaking.

“That’s great, I can get you all out easy then!” She grinned once more, but internally she was frantically running calculations. Thirty-two people, how far do they need to be away? Depends on whether they’re being intentionally targeted as individuals. Unlikely, she dismissed. Hawkmoth had never intentionally targeted civilians since the Stoneheart disaster, so these people being here seemed more likely a ploy to manipulate either her or the Miraculous Force. 

So, to get them out of the block, the minimum safe distance, she would need at least half an hour to evacuate them all, since even she could only carry two people at a time. She cursed her lack of a Miraculous. If only she had super strength, or super speed, or _something,_ she could work so much quicker! But half an hour was too long – the fight above had been going on for just minutes, and already the whole floor above had been half destroyed – who knew how long it would be until the damage progressed further to this level. The Miraculous Force weren’t concerned with damage to buildings at the best of times, and would be even less so if they were acting on the presumption that the building was a deserted office. 

“Need some help?” She turned suddenly, jumping at the intrusion. 

Next to her stood a woman, wearing a flowing jumpsuit embossed with purple and green feathers, face embellished with a mask made of what appeared to be…peacock feathers?

“Peacock?” She gasped in surprise. She had only seen the hero once before, on that fateful day eight years ago, and soon after that, the hero had disappeared, a vigilante hero missing even before the onslaught of Hawkmoth. Most had presumed that she had been taken out under the radar by the Miraculous Force, but here stood living, breathing evidence that the hero was alive and well.

“Ladybug. It’s simply lovely to finally meet you. I’ve been an ardent admirer of your work for the past few years.”

“S-same! You inspired me so much when I was younger! I’m- or, I was, a really big fan!” And Marinette felt very much like, well Marinette, instead of suave, confident Ladybug.

She suddenly became intimately aware of the civilian eyes fixed on the hero of Paris stuttering like a star-struck fangirl.

“But that’s not important right now! These people need to be evacuated, I’d feel much more confident of their safety if I had your help.” She forced her voice to become stable, and resisted the urge to ask the beautiful woman for an autograph. There was a time and a place for that kind of behaviour, and Ladybug had a mission. Marinette, however, could _potentially_ sneak in the request once all the civilians were safe.

“Of course. I was in the area, and while I’m sure the Miraculous Force have the rogue-Miraculous upstairs under control, I thought I would check the building for any by-standers. And I’m glad I did. We can get everyone out much quicker if we work together.”

“Absolutely.”

Marinette moved over to the children clinging to their father. “Hey guys, I’m gonna ask you to come with me, and I’m gonna take you somewhere safe, and this nice lady or me will bring your daddy to you really soon, okay?”

She felt herself seamlessly slip back into Ladybug-mode fully, carrying one on in her arms and the other on her back. It was difficult to support her weight on her yoyo when she was carrying such an unbalanced load, so she chose instead to run, which was considerably slower, but by far the safer option. Taking the children close to the police station, she gave them instructions to wait inside, and not tell the officers who had rescued them – the last thing she needed right now was to be arrested.

Upon returning to the office, she noticed a significant reduction in the number of people within the room. Only the father of the children and a few other adults remained. The other superhero had managed to evacuate over twenty people in the time Marinette had taken to evacuate just two. Peacock slipped past her and approached the remaining stragglers.

“Do you mind if I ask… where have you been all these years?”

“I think that’s a story for another time.” She smiled kindly. “After all, I’m sure we’ll see each other again. I rather feel like you’ve given me the taste for hero work again!”

“Of course. I was only wondering anyway, I’ll let you keep your secrets.” Marinette grinned back, feeling her mask crinkle around her eyes. The glue she used to hold it on was strong, but the dry heat permeating through the ceiling above was taking its toll. She wouldn’t be able to stay out too much longer, or risk losing her disguise.

Almost as if she was reading her mind, Peacock spoke. “We’re nearly done here, and I think the Miraculous Force are finally managing to turn the fight too, so I’m going to disappear for now.” Cracking her shoulders, she moved towards the waiting civilians. “I’ve left all the others near the police station – they’ll be safe there.”

“I had the same idea. They should all be together then.” Marinette replied.

“Well, they do say great minds think alike.” Peacock winked at the younger woman, before taking another two people in her arms, gesturing to a third to clamber on her back, and leaping out through the open window as if she was bearing no weight at all.

“Incredible.” Marinette whispered.

As she clambered out of the window, supporting the weight of the final two adults, both woozy from inhalation of carbon monoxide, she suddenly felt her heart drop, and leapt on instinct.

She made impact on the tarmac with a thump, all the weight of the herself and the two people she was carrying being taken by just her left leg. She felt a sharp, jarring pain run up the side of it, but paid it no mind. Because behind her, as she fell, she had heard a deafening rumble. And what once had been sheltering the now rescued civilians just moments before, was just rubble, dust, and flames.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> got a couple of new characters here ;) and a lil bit of foreshadowing too, which you may or may not notice.
> 
> also, adrien definitely puts noses in his smilies and types w/ perfect grammar, and definitely saves all his friends as their full names instead of nicknames, i've never been so sure of anything in my life. 
> 
> leave a comment if u like/have any questions/feedback! (seriously, plz do, I love comments)


	4. i'm sleeping on your folk's porch again (dreaming)

 

**chapter 4: i'm sleeping on your folk's porch again (dreaming)**

 

* * *

 

 

*Click*

_Reporting live from the site of the collapsed Office tower, I’m Melissa-_

*Click*

_But have the Miraculous Force gone too far, John? See, that’s the issue. They clearly aren’t concerned with civilian safety, after all-_

*Click*

_We have yet to hear from the individual team members. The official Police statement is that this was a tragic accident, and we can only be grateful no citizens were seriously hurt, but who knows what else is being covered up – after all, it was a Miraculous Force decision to move civilians to that office block in the first place._

_*Click*_

Alya’s channel surfing was cut short by the familiar creak of her apartment door. She stiffened momentarily, wary and on guard after the disaster of last night’s mission, but seeing only Nino, resumed her torment.

“You should stop watching that; they never have anything good to say,” Nino called over his shoulder, moving towards the kitchen with a bag piled high with groceries, much of which seemed to be chocolate based.

“You’re a godsend.” She followed him into the kitchen, leaving the infuriating blare of the endless news reports behind her. Grabbing a handful of crisps, she ate eagerly, spewing crumbs as she spoke. “And yeah, it’s always critical, but this time we actually deserve to be criticised. People could have _died_ Nino.”

“But they didn’t.”

“And no goddamn thanks to us.” She cursed, continuing to rifle through the groceries in search of more junk. Eating her feelings was the only thing giving her anything resembling comfort right now – thank god Nino knew her well enough to bring supplies. 

“No – but Chloé knew nothing about this – it was the higher-ups who ordered that evacuation.” 

“And it all checks out? Hawkmoth hasn’t managed to infiltrate the Miraculous Force now too?” She laughed, but it was bitter. Wouldn’t it be just their luck if Hawkmoth knew all their movements – it would certainly explain why they had been far less effective at combating Dormants in recent years. Most media outlets attributed half of their successes to Ladybug now anyway, being compromised by Hawkmoth would render their team all but useless. 

“Definitely not,” Nino reassured. “Officer Raincomprix received the intelligence that their building was going to be targeted, and he definitely isn’t one to turn traitor.”

“True, Sabrina would never forgive him, if nothing else.”

They moved over to the couch, flopping back and stretching out their sore muscles. Alya winced as she felt her calves scream in resistance as they distended. Last night had seriously taken its toll – even the healing abilities which came with her Miraculous had barely been enough to stop serious damage and a much-feared hospital visit.

“So, it was just bad luck?”

“It seems so, yeah. And good job Lady Luck managed to stumble onto the citizens too.”

“She didn’t already know they were there? Half the time she seems to know more about Miraculous Force intelligence than we do.”

“Not from what the civilians have told us – apparently, she stumbled on them unwittingly – seemed to be trying to sneak up on Fire Ringer from inside the building.”

“Clever.”

“Very. And it sounds like she found them just minutes before the building collapsed too.”

“What? How many of them were there?”

“Oh, thirty, easily – some were children though.”

“Is that supposed to be reassuring?!” Alya exclaimed.

“Well, I guess not, but they _are_ lighter – easier to evacuate, you know?”

“Wow, and she got them all out single-handed?” Alya whistled, unwillingly impressed.

“According to the police and the witnesses, yeah.”

“Incredible. I hate to admit it, but half the time she does our job better than us.”

“And don’t the press love to remind us.”

“At least the law is on our side." 

“For now. How long until they just say _fuck it_ and make her a member of the Miraculous Force too?”

“She refuses to be inducted though – don’t you remember when I tried to convince her when she first emerged?

“Ha, don’t I know it! The sight of you flat on your back is one I wouldn’t mind seeing again.”

They both fell silent, and Nino slowly flushed.

“Why, Lahiffe, I didn’t know you saw me that way.”

 

* * *

 

Marinette hadn’t seen the news today. She hadn’t read a paper, or turned on the radio, or been exposed to anything resembling information on the world outside. However, within the bakery, Marinette’s day was proving _very_ eventful.

Marinette had woken up approximately ten minutes before, having allowed herself to sleep in that morning, and knowing her parents would be back early enough that they would open the bakery themselves. So, seeing Tom and Sabine having a late brunch and coffee at the counter of the quiet shop was not unusual. What was a little less typical was the blonde model who was sat with them, biting into a croissant and making noises which were, quite frankly, sinful, and were not helping her to hide the blush she could feel rising in her cheeks.

“Marinette!” And neither was the way he said her name - like a child saying _Santa_ at Christmas, it was simple elation.

“Adrien popped in to see you this morning – said he wanted to check you were doing okay since Hawkmoth was active last night!” And her mother _beamed_ as she spoke, her father behind her looking no less thrilled. She could practically see them internally plotting as they welcomed the well-mannered model to their home.

“I didn’t wake you, right? I wanted to let you sleep in.” His laugh twinkled – and was that a note of nervousness she detected? "Your father said you were out last night?” 

“Um…” Freezing, Marinette’s mind began to race. “When did you two get in?” She attempted a change of subject – her parents certainly shouldn’t have known about her… excursion. 

“Around four AM. The taxi was certainly cautious about dropping us in Paris during a Dormant attack! Luckily the Dormant had been all cleared up by then – thank goodness for Ladybug.” Tom smiled. “So yes, sweetheart, we did see you sneaking in at four thirty, before you ask.” 

“Oh! Yeah, I was… seeing a friend.”

“On the night of an attack? What friend was this? They don’t seem very responsible if they’re arranging to meet in that kind of danger!” Sabine was poised to attack, eyes narrowed. Marinette winced, feeling the need to diffuse the situation.

“Um…”

“Oh, were you seeing Austin?” Adrien cut in, somehow both winking and widening his eyes simultaneously, as if begging her to understand.

“Oh! Yes! Austin! I went to see Austin! He gets scared on the night of Dormant attacks, but once it was over I headed home because I wanted to be here when you got back! But then I was just so tired I went straight to sleep.”

“Who’s Austin?” Apparently, the name of a mysterious (and non-existent) boy only served to intrigue her mother even further. 

“Just… a guy. My boyfriend?”

“Your boyfriend?!” All three of her companions exclaimed.

Tom and Sabine both turned to look at Adrien.

Adrien coughed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t realise it was official yet?”

“Well… it is! And now you know! I met him at university – he’s an engineer too. But Alya doesn’t know about him yet so please don’t go telling anyone else!”

“Adrien knows but Alya doesn’t?” 

“Yes?”

“He’s a model too – he mentioned Marinette at work once – we do shoots together sometimes in Italy. He’s… Italian?” Adrien again attempted to save Marinette, acting the angel that Marinette had always suspected he was.

“You’re dating an Italian engineer who moonlights as a model.” Sabine seemed disbelieving, while Tom seemed to have been rendered speechless.

“Yes.”

“I wish you’d told us sooner sweetheart – we’ve been wondering where you keep disappearing to at night!”’

“Oh, you’ve noticed?” Marinette squeaked.

“Yes, for a few weeks now.” Internally, Marinette felt herself relax, but she carefully fixed her face into a neutral expression. 

“I’m sorry, it’s just so early, I didn’t want to risk jinxing the relationship.” She lowered her head in what she hoped was a convincing facsimile of sincere regret. Mentally, she thanked whatever small amount of luck stayed with her as Marinette that she had chosen to live out during university – god knows whether she would have managed to convince her parents she had chosen to hide a four-year relationship. A fledgeling relationship in its first months was much more likely – especially considering that, as far as her parents were concerned, Marinette was inexperienced in all senses when it came to dating. After all, her only major relationship and flings had all been as Ladybug, not as Marinette herself.

“In future, can you let us know when you’re heading out? We don’t mind you spending the night at your boyfriend’s sweetheart, but Paris isn’t safe right now – we need to know where you are so we know you’re safe.”

“Of course, mom, I’m really sorry.”

“And bring this boy to meet us at some point!” She added.

_Dammit._

 

* * *

 

Adrien glanced at Marinette out of the corner of his eye as they wandered down the empty street. The girl looked anxious, hardly surprising considering she had never particularly warmed to him, and had woken up to find him in her kitchen, spewing claims of a boyfriend both were aware did not exist.

But hadn’t the morning been _interesting._ Marinette had been regularly sneaking out, for at least weeks, likely longer if her palpable relief when her mother said they had only noticed it for a short while was anything to go by. For some reason, Marinette was hiding something. And while Adrien knew the polite thing to do was leave her to her secrets, Chat Noir, the persona he normally worked so hard to suppress as Adrien, was desperate to know what.

“I’m sorry about earlier. It wasn’t my place.”

“No, it’s okay! I was panicking, I couldn’t think of an excuse quickly enough. I’m amazed you noticed!”

“You tend to freeze up when you’re scared. You… um… do it around me a lot, I’ve noticed. I actually wanted to see you today to try and get to know you better. I’ve known you a couple of years but I feel like we never really speak?” Not exactly the truth, but as close as he could get to it without letting her know he’d spied on her (or attempted to) the night before. And that he was far too interested in what she was doing when she disappeared.

“Oh! I’m sorry, it’s nothing to do with you! I just get a little anxious, you’re kind of intimidating.” She laughed and fiddled with the hem of her shirt, steadfastly avoiding eye contact.

“I’m really not!”

“I guess, you’re just very cool, you know? Most of my friends are kind of nerdy, I don’t really know any other world-famous models to have a baseline to compare to.”

“I can be nerdy!” 

She threw her head back, laughing. “I’m sure! The great Adrien Agreste, a nerd.”

“I am! Ask me anything about cartoons or anime, I bet I can answer.” 

“You watch anime?”

“…No?”

“You do! I can’t believe it! You _are_ a nerd! No wonder you and Nino get along so well.”

Arriving at the park, they both immediately headed towards the swings, turning and snorting as they realised the other had mimicked the decision.

“Great minds think alike?” He joked.

“I love the swings,” Marinette spoke a little wistfully. “Alya and I would always come here after school. Just…  hours, swinging and chatting and eating ice cream.” Laughing, she sat down and began to swing lightly. “I don’t get to see her that much anymore. She’s always at work.” 

“I can imagine it's busy working in media.”

“Very, from what she’s told me. She has to do so many night shifts, just waiting for news on Hawkmoth or the Dormants, you’d think she was on the Miraculous Force herself!”

“I know what you mean! Nino is just an accountant, but they make him work so much I’m amazed there’s anything he hasn’t added.” 

“Hasn’t ‘added’?”

“I’m still not one hundred percent clear what an accountant does.”

And she laughed once more, and he with her, and they sank into companionable silence.

They sat like that, for a while, just swinging. It was still early, and the air was cool, the sun not having yet begun its torment, and the breeze and the quiet sounds of the streets surrounding them made him feel more serene than he had for years.

“This is nice.”

“What is?” Scraping her feet against the floor, Marinette began to slow herself. He followed.

“Just hanging out. I’ve never really spent much time in parks, especially not with a friend. It’s usually just photoshoots.”

“That’s kind of lonely, don’t you think?" 

He hummed in agreement.

“Didn’t you and Nino used to hang out in school though?”

“Only at my house; my father is actually much laxer now than he was back in school, hard as that may be to believe.”

“He seems a little overprotective.” Marinette’s nose wrinkled, and her eyes narrowed, and he wondered at her sudden repulsion at any mention of his father. Considering her side interest in fashion, he would have thought the reclusive and eminent Gabriel Agreste would have been like catnip to the girl, but instead she seemed to regard him with scorn. Perhaps this was evidence that Marinette did not dislike Adrien as much as he had thought; her reaction to his father seemed to be how she expressed animosity, not the flustered stuttering which he himself received.

“He is, a little. But, after my mother’s disappearance, I guess I understand it. He just doesn’t want to lose me too.”

“But to smother you in bubble-wrap and not let you outside half the time, it's just-”. She shook her head. “Sorry. That’s none of my business. As long as you’re okay with it.” A pause. “Are you okay with it?” 

He shrugged. He didn’t have an answer to that – at least, not one Marinette would like. He did feel a little flattered that she was so outraged on his behalf, however. Perhaps they were becoming _real_ friends now. He liked that as Adrien; Chat Noir, meanwhile, saw an opportunity to pry.

“I have my friends anyway.” He smiled, in a way he hoped was reassuring. “There is Nino, and Alya, and Rose, and Juleka, and you.” 

Marinette flushed but nodded - a good sign. 

“And hey, apparently I have a new friend? His name is Austin and I hear he’s a catch – and his girlfriend isn’t bad either.” He threw a wink in, which sent Marinette into a coughing fit. Probably went a little overboard with that – their friendship wasn’t quite at the level of platonic flirting, and Adrien wasn’t quite as suave as Chat.

“Oh god, yeah. What am I going to do about that?” 

“You mean he _isn’t_ your boyfriend?”

“You’re funny.” She deadpanned.

“I mean, it shouldn’t be an issue, just let your parents know it didn’t work out.” 

“I guess. But then, I need a different excuse for why I keep sneaking out. Apparently, I’m not as subtle as I thought I was.”

“Couldn’t you just… not sneak out?”

“Sadly, I do not have that privilege.”

“Do you mind if I ask where you go?”

“It’s kind of private.” She laughed nervously. “Just a part-time job, really. But I’d rather my parents didn’t know about it.”

“Oh! Oh, um… right. Is everything… okay?” His mind flashed with images of dark street corners, shady bars, and Marinette rendered vulnerable by the dark underbelly of Paris he spent stalking most nights.

“Oh no! Nothing like that, I promise!” She smiled nervously, her eyes begging him to not question further.

“Well okay, just let me know if you need any help,” he acquiesced.

“Only if you have an idea of what my new excuse can be.”

“Well… actually, I do sort of have one?”

She cocked her head enquiringly.

“It’s kind of stupid.” He laughed nervously. 

“What is it?” 

“You could date me?”

Marinette, now resembling a beetroot, made a noise which Adrien was pretty sure was more audible to dogs than humans. 

“Um!”

“Not like that!” He quickly cut in, already having visions of her cursing his name, racing away from him, and refusing to contact him ever again. “I just meant, if we pretend we’re dating, you can use that as an excuse for why you break up with Austin, and pretend you’re staying at mine occasionally overnight. Plus, I already know your parents, so we don’t need to find an Italian-model-slash-engineer to pose as our mutual friend.” 

“That’s not… actually a bad idea.”

She was thinking about it. Good. It was a brilliant plan, if he did say so himself. Adrien gets to help his friend, and Chat Noir gets to keep a closer eye on a suspicious citizen, and maybe figure out what she was up to – a win-win situation. And if he gets to spend more time with Marinette as a by-product, well that was just a bonus.

“Okay. Let’s do it.” Marinette’s voice was determined, eerily reminiscent of that of his Lady. So, this was confident Marinette, who Nino and Alya knew. He couldn’t say he disliked it.

And with that, Marinette dumped her fake-Italian-Model-slash-Engineer real boyfriend, for a real-French-Model-slash-Supervillain fake boyfriend.

Nothing complicated about it.


	5. afraid someone else will hear me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette and Chloé both come to surprising realisations. Questions begin to form.

**chapter 5: afraid someone else will hear me**

 

* * *

 

Marinette was an _idiot._ She’d had a fake boyfriend for all of one week, and she was already running late for their first fake date, to see a slightly less-fake movie.

It had been Adrien’s idea. He was never allowed out of the house to see films on his own, he’d explained. His father claimed the security risk was outrageous, and anyway, why would he want to go to the cinema when he could stream any film he liked at home? Gabriel Agreste was, as far as Marinette _officially_ knew, Miraculous-free, but she was pretty sure if he did have any overt secret power, it would be in pure-overbearingness. From what Nino, and Alya, and now Adrien had told her, Adrien could scarcely take a breath without his father carefully cataloguing it and sending it to Natalie for analysis.

So Marinette had, of course, kindly offered to ask him to accompany her to the cinema. After all, he could hardly hang out _alone_ in his room with a _girl_ like he could with Nino. Nevermind that they were twenty-two years old, and nevermind that they weren’t even in a real relationship. The Agreste Manor was out of the question, and therefore Adrien had no other choice. 

She smirked. It was a foolproof plan, Adrien got a glimpse of the outside world, and Marinette got to spend time with Adrien (and maintain the guise of their relationship to her parents – it would be suspicious if they only hung out at night, after all). 

Or, it _would have been foolproof._ But Master Fu had sent her a message, and when her Master said jump, Marinette would never even ask _how high._ She would simply leap, and trust her Master’s judgement of the severity of any consequences which may occur upon her consequent descent. 

The conversation with the short man had been… unusual, to say the least. He had messaged her to ask about the night of the office block collapse. It was all anyone had been talking about for the last week, so Marinette couldn’t say she was surprised. Alya had all but vanished into her apartment to work on the PR for the police concerning the botched evacuation, Nino had been working full time calculating public damages, and both had sent their apologies to Marinette numerous times concerning their absence. The rest of the group hadn’t been any better. Rose and Juleka had vanished too – apparently, Juleka was too fearful of the Dormants running rampant in the city to venture out much, Rose had dismally explained in their small group chat. The only person Marinette had had any contact with all week was Nathaniel, but he scarcely spoke to her on her own – all of their interactions tended to be in a group setting – so that had been more awkward than anything else.

The Miraculous Force had been out every night, attempting to repair public relations, performing the kind of low key rescues they usually designated to petty vigilantes such as herself. The sight of Queen Bee herself relegated to stopping a trifling _mugger_ had given the gossip rags material for days – the Miraculous user usually considered such crime-fighting _far_ beneath her.

And Ladybug had been just as active. In the wake of fire-ringers assault, something seemed to have snapped in the other Dormants, every night a different one making an appearance. So it was fortunate that her friends had been kept so busy with their jobs, as she was hardly less occupied. Even Bubbler had stuck his head out for a while, although he mostly just enjoyed taunting Carapace – she supposed it was something to do with the similarities in their powers which led to their rivalry, both relying on summoned shields and snarky wit.

So no, speaking to Master Fu was not surprising, in of itself. But the conversation they’d had was another matter entirely.

She had been explaining the events of the night of the tower collapse, relaying the story to him in as concisely as she could, aware of the time ticking down until her not-date. That is, until she got to the part about her helper.

“And then, the Peacock appeared, and offered to help, which was crazy – no one’s seen her in  _years_ right?”

“The Peacock?” 

“Yes? You saw all this, right? I shouldn’t need to explain this to you!” Master Fu had a unique Miraculous, in that it was entirely mentally based – Marinette had never seen another Miraculous like his before. He had the ability to see through someone else’s eyes, presuming that person had given their consent to the invasion previously. Marinette allowed him to see what she saw whenever she was in her Ladybug persona, and while he did not always watch, he was never absent on the night of a new Dormant being activated.

“Yes. I saw. I merely wanted to hear your side of the story. However,” and at this, he frowned. “I did not see anyone even resembling the Peacock. Marinette, I saw no one at all. Except for frightened citizens.”

“But surely you must have seen her help with the evacuation?”

“I did not. All I know is that, when you left, there were many citizens, and when you arrived back, far fewer. I assumed some had escaped on their own, and were merely accrediting their evacuation to you in pursuit of glory on the television.”

Marinette simply froze, and could not speak. She had noticed that the citizens who she and the Peacock had rescued together had not mentioned her partner, but had assumed the other superhero had wanted to keep her return as low key as possible, and they were remaining quiet at her request. She hadn’t even considered the possibility that they did not realise someone else had rescued them. Then again. Did any of the citizens even speak to the Peacock? Marinette wasn’t even there for the majority of the evacuation. Perhaps the Peacock’s Miraculous gave her the power of invisibility – it would explain why no one else seemed to have seen her. But then, why had she been apparent only to Marinette? To Ladybug, she mentally corrected.

“Do you think she was invisible?”

“It’s very possible. I don’t believe her Miraculous was ever revealed when she was a vigilante – she was rather like you in that respect.” The old man smiled fondly. “But she was certainly visible, at least some of the time, back then.” 

“Maybe she doesn’t want people to know she’s returned? We don’t know why she disappeared last time after all – perhaps someone is still after her!” She began to worry – if there was something out there dangerous enough to make even the _Peacock herself_ cautious, then that did not bode well for the rest of the active Miraculous in the city, far weaker than a veteran such as the older superhero.

“Maybe.” Master Fu was as infuriatingly vague as ever, but Marinette had learned to trust that vagueness. After all, without a Miraculous, she was used to being left to figure things out for herself – in a way, problem-solving was kind of like a super-power for her. And a lot of that could be attributed to her master never explaining anything. Ever. Actually, maybe she should just give herself credit for that instead.

We cannot know by theorising, however. Perhaps she shall reveal herself to you in due time. Then you can ask your questions.” 

“Did she ever interact with the old Miraculous Force?” Master Fu had been a veteran member of the Force for years, training new members even following his retirement. Luka had planned to do the same, once, as Sonic Zoom, before being forced into an early retirement as Miraculous Force turnover increased rapidly in response to increased Hawkmoth attacks. 

Something had happened seven years ago, however, a year before the emergence of Hawkmoth, which had led to the man isolating himself from the Force, and disappearing into obscurity. Now he was just a feeble old man who ran a struggling tea shop (and who trained the best vigilante in Paris in his spare time). He had never explained exactly what. She only knew it had something to do with Gabriel Agreste. And since her own origin story lay with the Agreste patriarch, well. She always felt a degree of kinship.

“Never. And it served her well. The Force are good, Marinette, but their allegiance will always lie with the law. It is unsafe for a vigilante to form any close ties to them – they will accept your help in the moment, certainly, but ultimately they will always betray.” Master Fu trusted the Miraculous Force nowadays about as far as he could throw them, despite his respect for their work. She wondered if it had something to do with the reason he had left.

“Master-”.

“Now is not yet the time for that story, Marinette.”

“My apologies.” She bowed her regret at her invasion. Master Fu had already explained that his reason for keeping the tale to himself was for her own safety – that she would be in far more danger with the knowledge he held than without it.

And it was not as if she was not keeping things from him. Flashes of a dark prison cell, and green eyes shining through the darkness involuntarily ran through her mind. She pushed them aside. Now was not the time to dwell. 

Upon realising that Marinette was as ignorant as he was, Master Fu had finally released her. And, now she had no time at all.

She panted as she sprinted as hastily as she could manage across streets and through alleys, even briefly contemplating using her yo-yo to speed her travel. She arrived outside the cinema, dripping with sweat, hair plastered to her face, only fifteen minutes late. Unfortunately, Adrien had been perfectly punctual, and was just turning to leave as she arrived.

“Adrien!” She half-screamed after him, trying to stop him from leaving and thinking she had stood him up. He turned, and she suddenly froze, realising how she must look. Bright red from her running, dishevelled and sweaty, she looked exactly like the kind of terrifying stalker Marinette imagined Gabriel Agreste feared would assault Adrien whenever he stepped out in public.

His bodyguard had already intervened and was preparing to frog-march her away before Adrien could halt his laughing enough to stop him. 

Marinette was bitter about this all the way throughout the queue for tickets.

“He was going to arrest me, Adrien!” She exclaimed, outraged that he was not taking her ordeal more seriously.

“He doesn’t have the power to arrest you! At worst he would have shaken you up a little and taken you at least 500 metres away.”

“Well, that’s not much better. Then I would have _definitely_ missed our date.” Wait. “Not-date, I mean.” She corrected herself.

“You can call it a date if you want. We both know what you mean anyway.” He winked, and wow. Guess Marinette would have to learn to be Ladybug without a heart, because hers had just stopped. 

The cinema date/not-date was remarkably uneventful, considering who she was with. Her heart was pounding, sure, but she spent most of the film dwelling over her conversation with Master Fu. Between her inner-monologue and her overwhelming awareness of the closeness of the man next to her, she barely paid attention to more than two seconds of the movie itself.

“Did you like it?” Adrien asked as they wandered out of the dark room, having clearly been more focused on whatever plot they had just been subjected to than Marinette. 

“Yes!” Good. Positivity was good. Adrien would see positive, non-stuttering Marinette as an improvement, she was sure.

“That’s great! I thought it was awesome too – I’m surprised you like horror though? Nino wasn’t sure – said you’d cried during Nightmare on Elm Street? It’s why I originally chose a comedy. I was worried when we missed the start of that one.”

Shit. Marinette _hated_ horror. “Oh, I _love_ horror! Can’t get enough of that… um… fear.”

“An adrenaline junkie eh?” he laughed. Well, that bit at least was half-true. Ladybug was an adrenaline junkie, anyway.

“Oh yeah, definitely.” She smiled serenely, inwardly plotting how she could guarantee a cinema not-date was never in the cards again. After all, if Adrien thought they shared a love of horror, then who _knew_ what he’d end up suggesting next. No, park not-dates were a much safer bet.

“Want me to walk you home?”

Blushing wildly, Marinette only nodded her consent. She knew he was only suggesting so her parents would see them arrive home together, but still. As he held her hand when they neared the bakery, she couldn’t help but imagine it was real.

 

* * *

 

Alya was dead on her feet. She had worked eighteen-hour shifts patrolling the city this week in an attempt to rectify the disaster Fire-Ringer had brought upon their public reputation. Every night she collapsed into bed at six AM to catch a few winks before resuming her gruelling work at midday the same day. She couldn’t even blame Chloé for the horrific scheduling – the blonde nightmare was working harder than any of them- Nino swore she’d only slept for six hours _total_ during the last week. It would certainly explain the vague neurosis which seemed to have overtaken their _valiant_ leader.

“Shut the _fuck_ up Robotnik, or whatever the _fuck_ your name is, and get me some _fucking_ results.” She snarled at Max, having apparently decided to utilise his Miraculous code-name at some point during the last week. Or she’d gone mad from the exhaustion. Max sped out of the room, in search of results of some description, although Alya was fairly sure he had no idea what kind of results it was that Chloé actually wanted. A cup of strong black coffee would likely do the job as well as anything else. 

Nino was fast asleep on a desk next to her, having chosen to skip sleep last night to aid the police in a heavily publicised drug bust. She contemplated waking him, knowing his shift started in just half an hour, but decided it was perhaps best to let him grab any kind of brief reprieve he could manage.

Instead, she chose the near-suicidal task of approaching Chloé. 

“Um… Queen?”

One eye swivelled to Alya, the other, slightly disturbingly, appearing to be asleep. It appeared almost as if Chloé had used her own poison to paralyse one of her eyes to keep it closed. Or perhaps she was exhausted to the point where she was conserving energy by only utilising half of her body at a time. Alya didn’t know, and frankly, was too terrified to ask.

“WHAT.” The blonde spat with what Alya presumed was disgust, but her face moved too little for Alya to be certain.

“Is… um. Is everything okay?”

“Everything is just _dandy._ There’s a PR disaster which head-office is up my fucking ass about 24/7, I’m not sure if I remember what sleep is any more, we’ve located a missing fucking agent and it doesn’t look good, am I missing anything?”

“A missing agent?” Alya hadn’t heard anything about any agents going missing at all, let alone one being found again.

“Oh, and now I’m spilling confidential information to my subordinates because I’m so freaking sleep deprived, fucking wonderful.” She snarled, but this time it seemed to be directed more at herself than at any of her terrified team members. “Come with me, Agent Cheeto, looks like you’re my new second in command.”

“Second in command?” Alya tactfully ignored the insult - if Chloé was throwing around childish insults, she was already close to the edge - Alya had no wish to push her any further. 

“What, do you just echo me now? Just accept the promotion, I could use some fucking help right about now. And apparently, you know confidential information, so looks like you’re my only option anyway.”

Alya chose simply to nod quietly, if only to limit the number of expletives (or rather, one expletive) that Chloé was throwing around their office. It wasn’t helping with team morale – Mylène looked like she was on the verge of tears. She also decided not to point out that the only reason Alya knew the (apparently) confidential information was due to Chloé’s slip up. She valued her life that much, at least. So she followed the blonde woman out of the room, into the small office which belonged solely to the Miraculous Force leader, sat, and waited for Chloé to speak.

 

* * *

  

Chloé prided herself on her tolerance. The rest of the team might not agree on it being one of her admirable traits, but if they had seen how she had been in high school, well. They would have thanked the gods themselves Adrien had managed to temper her temper (hah! Wordplay.) in the last few years.

But right now, she was reaching her limit.

And it wasn’t Alya’s fault, as much as the red-headed woman made her life difficult, with her _questioning_ and her _journalistic integrity._ As if. PR was her cover story, for god’s sake, but Alya took it far too seriously – Chloé could only presume she’d had some far-fetched ambition to be a journalist back in school, and was vicariously living it through her work on the Force.

It wasn’t even head office’s fault, not really. Damocles was just doing his best, same as the rest of them. The man had a whole police force to run, after all. And he didn’t have a Miraculous, so he couldn’t really understand how exhausting it was for the force to work eighteen-hour shifts, using their Miraculous the whole time. Besides, he was working as long as them in light of the recent disaster.

No, every single one of Chloé Bourgeois’ problems could be traced back to fucking Hawkmoth, and whatever his game plan was.

She leaned against the door to her office, facing Alya, who had sat down in the chair facing Chloé’s desk. She was tempted to sit opposite and relax, but didn’t want to risk getting too comfortable and losing the caffeine buzz of the twelve cups of coffee she had consumed so far today.

“What do you remember from basic training, Alya?”

“What is this, a pop quiz?” Alya shot back, before quickly seeming to realise the solemnity of the occasion. “Sorry. In what sense?”

“My fault. I’ll be more specific. What do you remember about the final generation?” The final generation was how they tended to colloquially refer to the final Miraculous Force generation before the first assaults of Hawkmoth which slaughtered their numbers, and led to the recruitment drive, which had eventually led to the recruitment of all of them. Luka had been the last member of the final generation, joining at just seventeen, and driven out of the force entirely by their own addition just a few years previous. By that time, the Dormants had been so active that he had been glad to leave.

“Um.” Chloé could practically _see_ Alya racking her brain for knowledge. The woman basically lived for information. “The Final Generation were active as a team up until six years ago, where the first assault from Hawkmoth devastated their numbers. All members but four were slaughtered during the Stoneheart attack, with Propulsion and Foiler both disappearing, presumed dead in their citizen personas. Following this, all Miraculous Force members were required by law to give their civilian identities to the Force, to avoid a similar event occurring again.”

“Good.” Chloé knew Alya was the right choice – it had been no accident her revealing the truth behind their current crisis to her new second in command. Chloé rarely did things by accident, even sleep-deprived as she currently was.

“What’s is the significance of that, though? I’m pretty sure Luka is the only surviving member now, and I don’t think he’ll be coming back any time soon.” Alya spoke hesitantly. Confusion was an unusual sensation for her, and at any other time, Chloé would have revelled in it.

“Did you notice anything… familiar about Fire-Ringer the other day?”

“Familiar?” Alya frowned, and pulled out her phone, quickly typing into YouTube to find footage of their fight. Their location below other office building had given the many witnesses to their fight a bird's eye view. It was lucky for Ladybug that apparently no one in the buildings on the side of the offices she had scaled had thought to film their vantage point, or if they had, they hadn’t posted the footage anywhere on the internet. Her appearance at the fight was only validated by word of mouth. 

Alya wordlessly watched the video, suddenly pausing and rewinding at the point where Fire-Ringer first used her power. “I  _did_ think it seemed a little unusual at the time… but-”

“You see it too, then.” Chloé felt ill. Someone else had come to the same conclusion as her, nearly instantly. The fact that that someone was Alya comforted her slightly – Alya had an incredible instinct for journalistic breakthroughs, but it would likely take the mainstream media a little longer to come to the same realisation as the two of them; they were the most intelligent members of the Force for a reason.

“That’s… She’s Propulsion, isn’t she.” There was no question behind Alya’s statement. She already knew the truth.

“That’s Propulsion. No doubt about it. Different costume, but the Miraculous is identical.” They both fell silent, contemplating the seriousness of the implications this raised. 

And here lay Chloé’s issue. Somehow, Hawkmoth had managed to take one of their own. Somehow, one of the Final Generation, the paragon of morality for the modern media, who died valiantly and heroically in an assault they could not have predicted, had floored an office building. Somehow, a member of the Miraculous Force had gone Rogue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys! hope you like the new chapter - see if you can figure out what's going on ;p Marinette, Chloé, and Alya sure can't anyway >:) Let me know if you like it, if you have any questions, if you have any theories, i love comments + kudos, and more interaction generally means a quicker update (as i like to write when i'm thinking about the fic a lot!) hope u enjoyed! - Holly x (and if you like this, check out my other Adrienette fic -Lilac Sky!)


	6. the best part of believe is the lie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deception is a tricky game.

**Chapter 6: The best part of believe is the lie**

 

* * *

“Rogue?”

“That’s the current theory anyway, if you believe what the papers are saying.”

“Interesting.”

Adrien was sat at the base of a long, white slab, a single plate, barely touched, in front of him. His father sat opposite, at the table’s head, far away as the room would permit. He wished this was how it had always been – that it wasn’t _him_ who was driving his father away. But he remembered his mother, when she had still been around, sitting next to his current seat. His father had once chosen to join them. Once the light of the large windows overlooking the dining room had illuminated his family, whole.

Now, they were isolated. And the curtains were closed.

Adrien waited for his father to continue his analysis of the media response to the attack from Fire-Ringer; Propulsion, as the woman had once been known. But apparently, he had nothing more to say – or nothing he cared to divulge to Adrien.

He ate in uncomfortable silence, choosing to trace the cracks on the faux-marble floor below him with his eyes as he chewed. The occasional faint sound could be heard beneath the linoleum, and he grimaced with what it signified.

Once, the floor had been true marble, the house brilliant in its glory. But the original floor had been torn up long ago to facilitate the changes to the basement, and besides; his father no longer cared about appearances.

Ironic, for an ex-fashion designer.

“Where were you last Saturday?” Apparently, the silence had stretched on long enough even to unease his father – usually an impossible task. But the relationship had been tense recently. Not that it had ever been perfect, a missing mother/wife and constant isolation would do that. But with Adrien’s steady deterioration and Hawkmoth’s more rapid withdrawal into whatever scheme Fire-Ringer had been but the commencement of, they had scarcely talked in weeks. Adrien simply went where he was told to go, minimised damage or wrecked minor havoc where he deemed appropriate, and kept any night-time stalking ( _observations –_ he mentally corrected) of the two most intriguing women in his life to himself.

“Just seeing a friend.” Keeping it short was the best way to curtail the father-son bonding that neither of them wanted.

“Nino is perfectly welcome at the mansion.” Nino avoided the mansion at all costs – apparently, the empty house felt more like a tomb to visitors. Adrien suspected it was the overt absence of any trace of his mother. The faded wallpaper surrounding now absent picture frames was more overbearing than the images themselves would have been. Gabriel did not like to think of who’s face had once been mounted there.

“I have friends other than Nino, father.”

“None which you have mentioned to me.”

“Perhaps I do not mention everything to you, then.”

Gabriel’s eyes simply narrowed. Adrien gulped, seeing his error.

“It’s a mutual friend.”

“Of Nino’s?”

“Of his girlfriend.”

“A girl?”

Adrien did not like the tone of his father's voice.

“Yes, a _girl_.” He knew the next question that would be asked, and decided to answer it before forcing his father to show more paternal concern than he had in the last six years combined. “My girlfriend, actually.” 

Gabriel did not react immediately, choosing to take a moment to place his glass down on the table, perhaps a touch more forcefully than required. Taking a deep breath, he asked: “And this girl, she has a Miraculous?”

This was unexpected. Adrien had expected his father to ask after Marinette’s social status, perhaps to find out if she was a gold-digger, or a media-mogul using him as a gateway to find out what happened to the elusive Gabriel Agreste. He had not expected him to ask about her potential _superpowers._

“Um- no, not as far as I’m aware – I mean, maybe, I haven’t asked. But! If she does, it’s certainly a weak one which she’s decided not to utilise.” He wanted to keep his attention as far away from Marinette as possible. After all – he had yet to work out where she went on her night-time adventures. So many of them seemed to coincide with nights when he was busy supervising Dormants, so he was just waiting to find an opportunity to follow her properly.

“Or she’s in the Miraculous Force and is forced to keep it secret for the sake of her job.” Hawkmoth – for it was Hawkmoth, and not his father, speaking now, in such a scornful tone.

“Not possible. She was at CentraleSupélec for the past four years – only just graduated.”

“There hasn’t been a new Miraculous Force member for at least two years, I assume is your point?” Hawkmoth nodded to himself before Adrien could respond, the matter apparently settled. “Very well. You may continue to see this _girl_ , as long as it does not interfere with your other duties.”

“Very well father.”

“Speaking of-” Adrien felt himself freeze. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

This was more worrying still. His father never _talked_ to him about their lives – supervillainry or otherwise. In the last four years since he had become Chat Noir – even the last six years since his _broken_ Miraculous had become active, he could count on one gloved hand how many conversations they had had about what they did. Normally, his father gave orders, and he obeyed. If he questioned, it only resulted in his father shutting him out. And Adrien only had one parent left – he didn’t want to lose his father too.

“To… talk to me?”

“Quite. That… Ladybug.” His mouth twisted as he spoke the name – like a man pronouncing a word in a half-known foreign language. He knew how it should be read, but it was unfamiliar in his mouth.

“Ladybug?” Adrien echoed with a softer familiarity. His breathing halted, heart fluttering within its now frozen confines. He could feel his power creeping up from behind the shield of his ring, and, swallowing, he tried to force it down – it would not do to panic now – to let his father know how far his control had slipped.

But why would he bring up _Ladybug._ She had nothing to do with their plans. She was just another vigilante – a good one, to be sure, but not a member of the Miraculous Force. Not a rogue. Not a dormant. Just a _girl._

“When did you two last have an encounter? I presume you are still following your childish infatuation of following her in your nightly patrols.”

And he hadn’t realised his father knew _that_ either. Apparently, neither he nor Marinette were particularly good at hiding things from their parents. This conversation was going from bad to worse.

“Um.” _Lie or truth, lie or truth._ Scales teetered in Adrien’s mind – weighing the possibilities.

He didn’t know what his father wanted with Ladybug. Maybe he wanted to recruit her. And wouldn’t tht be perfect. Then they’d get to work together, and he’d get to patrol with her and see her every day! But that was grossly optimistic. After all, his father had been reluctant to allow his own son to work with him; what were the odds he’d permit a strange girl from the opposition to. Besides – Ladybug would never say yes.

There was the alternative option of course; that his father had decided he needed her gone. Even though it had been the Miraculous Force who thwarted Fire-Ringer, it had been Ladybug who acted to save those civilians from their burning prison. Adrien didn’t know for sure it was Hawkmoth behind that. Needless destruction of lives was not usually his style, especially not after the Stoneheart incident. He cared more about drawing out and decimating the Miraculous Force than anything else. But his father had been growing more desperate recently.

And Adrien was too scared to ask.

So the scale tipped, and he chose what he usually chose, at least when it came to Hawkmoth _(to his father)._

“Last week. Um. Night of the Propu- Fire-Ringer attack.” He corrected himself. “Only briefly.”  _Truth._

“What did you discuss?”

“Just usual rivalry stuff. Taunting – nothing of significance. She mentioned she knew it was a dormant night.”

_Lie._

Or, _omission._ Which was the same as a lie to his father. But he could hardly tell Hawkmoth himself that he feared he was becoming desperate – dangerous. Ladybug though. Her he needed to warn– probably the childish infatuation his father had mentioned before.

“Remind me, what is her Miraculous?” His father was no longer paying him any visible attention, his eyes instead fixated on his phone screen, where the local news websites were displaying articles on the incredible public vigilance of the Miraculous Force these past two weeks. Adrien did not let that deceive him; his father’s mind was razor sharp. Just watching for a slip-up.

“It’s unidentified, as far as I know.” _Truth._

“As far as you _know._ What do you _think._ ”

This was dangerous territory.

“Um… news websites think some kind of luck based Miraculous? Since she’s so often at the right place at the right time? But I don’t know if that kind of thing _can_ be a Miraculous – they’re usually something you can manipulate, right? Her combat abilities are impressive – but nothing suggesting strength outside of the usual enhancement given by any Miraculous – it’s certainly not its speciality.” _True, true, true._

“I didn’t ask what it wasn’t, Adrien. Are we playing this game? I don’t have a fire miraculous, I don’t affect electricity, I don’t fly. Anything else I _don’t_ do?”

 _‘You don’t give me a break,’_ Adrien thought, exasperated. Apparently, his father was feeling _snarky_ this evening. Wonderful.

“Sorry. I really have no idea Father.” _True._ “Whatever it is, it’s subtle – or she doesn’t want people to know. Yours certainly isn’t overt – perhaps it’s something like that?” He rarely mentioned his father’s Miraculous – essential as it was to the generation of Dormants. It was a touchy subject, but then, Adrien was feeling rather touchy himself this evening. He took a degree of pride in seeing his father’s slight flinch. _That was for the attitude._

“Yes, well.” Adrien tensed. His father was overlooking his slight. That meant he planned to punish him in some other manner. And he had a sneaky suspicion it would be with whatever his new assignment was.

“Father?”

“I’m not going to need you to supervise the Dormants for a little while.”

“Are you not sending them out?”

“Of course I am. Don’t be stupid. I still need to try and break down the _Miraculous Force_.” Again, the sneer. The derision. Hawkmoth.

“Then what will I be doing?”

“I want you to find out what Ladybug’s Miraculous is. I’m intrigued she has been active so long without revealing it.”

And _there_ was the punishment. “She hides it fairly well father – it’s very possible it’s something I won’t be able to observe simply by taunting or spying.” His father wouldn’t make him… “You aren’t suggesting I win her trust?”

“I do not care how you do it, Adrien. I do not even care if you observe it for yourself. But I _do_ want you to bring her to me. I’d like to have a look for myself.”

His _father_ wanted to study her Miraculous? His mind flashed down to the maze-like caverns below the fake marble linoleum of their vast dining room. Would he study it there, with the others? Ladybug had a Miraculous though, unlike _them._ – then again, so had Propulsion. So did Foiler.

“Very well.”

“You won’t let your… fixation, with the vigilante girl, interfere?”

“I won’t, father.”

 

 

 

_Lie._

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

From: Shellface (Nino Lahiffe)

**Dude**

**Dudette?**

**Idk**

**Anyway**

**You _seen_ this ????**

***Attached: 1 image***

 

To: Shellface (Nino Lahiffe)

**What.**

**WHAT**

**WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN**

**WHERE DID U GET THIS**

From: Shellface (Nino Lahiffe)

**It was on Adrien’s official Instagram?**

To: Shellface (Nino Lahiffe)

**I repeat**

**WHAT**

**BRB**

Alya didn’t know if it was possible for your fingers to trip over themselves when typing, but if it was, hers certainly were as she dialled Marinette’s number, not even wasting the time it would take to go through her contacts (despite that being theoretically the quicker route). It felt more cathartic to manually dial. And she was _angry._

“What!?” She screamed down the phone the instant Marinette picked up – so quickly, in fact, that Marinette likely did not even hear the first half of the word as the phones were still connecting, and instead, was welcomed to the conversation by a guttural roar.

“Alya?”

“What is this?”

There was a pause, as Alya scowled down at the photo Nino had sent her. Apparently realising she would receive no more information, Marinette hesitantly spoke. “Um, Alya? I’m not with you. I can’t see whatever you’re apparently so furious about.”

“OH.” Alya was jolted out of her glaring at the picture. “RIGHT.” She shook her head, bringing herself back to reality. “Why is there a picture of _you, Marinette Dupain-Cheng-”_

“I know my own name Alya.” Marinette sounded far too amused, not taking the gravity of the situation seriously.

“Let me _finish._ You. Marinette. Instagram. Adrien.”

“Adrien’s Instagram?” Marinette asked, confused. She must have opened the app while she spoke, because this was followed by a gasp of surprise. “I thought he was joking about posting this!” The picture was a selfie of the two of them, on a street Alya recognised as being close to the Dupain-Cheng bakery. Marinette looked adorable, face scrunched and half hidden by a peace sign Adrien had thrown up into the air, presumably to hide her identity from his hordes of fangirls. Only those who knew Mari would recognise the girl – unfortunately for her, Alya fell into this group. And the caption ‘ _date night with the gf <3’ _had thrown Alya for a whole roller-coaster of a loop.

“You’re DATING ADRIEN?” 

“Well. Yes? I was going to tell you next time I saw you, it’s just, it’s only been a couple of weeks, and-”

Right. Alya had been working the last two weeks since Fire-Ringer’s attack. Non-stop. Without a break. And she hadn’t seen Marinette once in that time.

“I’m _so_ sorry Mari, I swear I’ll see you soon, work has just been _mad._ ” What was mad was the amount of work she’d had to do since becoming Chloé’s second in command. “I got promoted though!” She could at least tell Marinette that much, she supposed, although hopefully Marinette wouldn’t ask for details of the promotion. It was kind of hard to explain that she would have to micro-manage a small team of superheroes as they dealt with damage control due to a compromised team member.

“What kind of promotion? Still in PR?” Damn Marinette and her sincere interest in Alya’s life. 

“Um… Management?”

“Is that any closer to getting to write press releases?”

“Yep! The next step up!” Not entirely a lie – she and Chloé had been contemplating making Rena Rouge the official media liaison for the team since Chloé had given a paparazzo the middle finger during a fight the other day – the photographer had been far too close to Volpina and her stupid creations, and had been distracting Chloé in search of an official statement. In Alya’s opinion, the man was lucky Chloé had only gestured the finger at him, instead of stabbing him with one of Queen Bee’s infamous fingernails. Both had soon after agreed that Alya was a far more affable press-presence.

“That’s great Alya! And don’t feel bad about not being able to meet up – just let me know when you’re ready to reinstate the group schedule again; I’ve hardly seen Rose or Juleka either. Oh, and I think Nathaniel is missing you guys. He mopes around the bakery a lot in the day.”

Nathaniel had a horrific, all-encompassing, unreciprocated crush on Marinette, not dissimilar to the one Marinette had on Adrien. (Or used to have? Apparently, it had not been as unreciprocated as they had thought.) The artist struggled to speak to Marinette on his own, relying on a group setting most of the team. Alya honestly admired that he was still going to the bakery even without the usual reinforcements – unfortunately, Marinette had yet to notice his real reason for visiting. This news about Adrien would be a real blow to him – Alya made a reminder to herself to check up on him once the Miraculous Force work began to let up a little.

“Yeah, Rose got pretty freaked out about the attack, right?”

“Rose? Rose told me that it was _Juleka_ who got freaked out?” And glancing at their group chat, Alya realised that apparently, their cover-story had gotten lost in communication – the initial agreement had definitely been for Rose to be the scared one.

“Oh yeah, sorry, that’s what I meant. Rose was just worried about Juleka I think.” Thinking of the couple, both of whom Alya had last seen curled around each other, fast asleep on the floor of the Miraculous Force office, she couldn’t help but feel like the conversation had derailed somewhat. She decided to shove the train back onto the track.

“So. You and Adrien?”

“Um, yeah, it just kind of happened? He came over to see how I was after the last big Dormant attack, and since you guys haven’t been around, we’ve just been seeing each other a lot. It’s only been a couple of weeks though, promise.” Marinette sounded so apologetic that Alya felt guilty. It wasn’t Marinette’s fault that Alya wasn’t around – wasn’t Marinette’s fault that it felt like all Alya did was lie to her nowadays. With all their friends in the Miraculous force aside from Nathaniel, she hadn’t considered how lonely Marinette might get with all of them working, even if she had also turned into a workaholic recently.

“Apparently, all it took was us working overtime to push you too together, eh?” Alya teased.

“Apparently so!” Marinette laughed from the other end of the phone. “How’s work been though? I saw all the fallout from the building collapse, is everything okay with that?”

“Eugh. A nightmare, to be honest.” Finally, something she could tell the truth about. “Everyone is working overtime, constantly trying to keep the press at bay. PR is HELL Mari, HELL.” She let out a laugh of frustration. “And now with all this Rogue business that came out today, well, it’s not been fun.” Never mind that Alya had known about that for a week and was surprised it hadn’t come out sooner – it hadn’t made it any easier to deal with.

“Rogue business?”

“Oh, have you not seen the news today?"

“I’ve been in the shop all day – mum and dad don’t let me have the TV in there. Apparently, the news generally right now is a bit depressing – not good for business. All Dormants and Hawkmoth, interspersed with politics, I don’t know which is worse.”

Alya snorted. “Definitely the latter. But seriously, take a look. Apparently, that Dormant from a couple of weeks ago, Fire-Ringer?” She knew she did not really need to ask – there was not a citizen in Paris who did not know the name of the villain who had nearly ended thirty lives. “Well, _apparently,_ she’s actually a Rogue. Propulsion – who disappeared six years ago in the Stoneheart attacks?”

Alya expected Marinette to gasp in surprise, to condemn the fallen hero, perhaps to theorise on her fate. Perhaps she would reassure Alya that at least Fire-Ringer was defeated and in jail now – even if she refused to speak. What Alya did not expect was to hear a cacophonous clatter, as something fell to the ground. Hopefully, it was just the phone.

“Marinette? Marinette!” She called for her friend, beginning to panic as the silence dredged onwards. Eventually, her friend’s voice returned to the call, sounding thinner and tighter than it had before.

“I’m okay. Um. Sorry Alya, I’ve got to go, work you know? Ha, of course you’d know. Sorry.” And Marinette had hung up and left before Alya could muster a reply (or apology).

But what had been up with Marinette’s response? She had never seemed like an especially big fan of the Miraculous Force – they had their obsessive followers, for sure, but Marinette mostly just seemed to ignore them, except for the occasional mandatory acknowledgement when they saved Paris (again). So why had she reacted so badly to the news of the betrayal of a member? 

Perhaps the issue then, lay with Alya. She knew that she had been keeping secrets from Marinette – during her training, her last two years as an official team member, and _especially_ in the last two weeks. And perhaps Marinette was catching on – or moving on. After all, last time Alya spoke to Marinette in person, the girl could barely utter two words in front of Adrien, and now apparently, she had her first boyfriend in the form of the aforementioned model. Marinette had always told Alya everything. 

Maybe she was beginning to realise that Alya did not always return the favour.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! new chapter again, hope you like it, let me know what you think! as always, comments and kudos are always appreciated :) - holly

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is always appreciated!


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